The $36 million road bond package approved by Kyle voters in May will improve one road each year for five years starting in 2015. The order of roads was determined by City Council months before the election, but the question of which road or roads to improve first has been raised again.
At the Kyle Mobility Committee meeting June 6, Vice Chairwoman Gayle Meister proposed the committee and council consider starting the project off with two roads at once.
"Whether you live on the east side of I-35 or you live on the west side of 35, you're going to want your road done first," Meister said.
Meister said when she met with the homeowner's association of Silverado, a neighborhood on Kyle's west side, residents voiced a preference to start with Marketplace Avenue, which is currently scheduled to be last.
One of the biggest challenges of starting the project with Marketplace Avenue or Burleson Street, the other road west of I-35, is acquiring right of way, said Samantha Bellows-LaMense, council liaison for the committee. Portions of right of way need to be acquired on each of the roads east of I-35, but none of the land required for the three-quarter-mile stretch that will connect Marketplace Avenue with Burleson Street has been acquired.
Joe Bacon, a member of the mobility committee, said the information that was gathered at public-input meetings held over the course of a year should continue to guide the project's direction.
"All along we've said this is how we've prioritized, this is what we're going to do, and we kept other roads out," Bacon said. "I think we need to stay the course and not get too far off base here."
Bellows-LaMense said if residents express concern over the order of the roads, she will ask council to send the issue back to the committee for further discussion.
The committee voted unanimously to table the issue until council asks the committee to revisit it.