With nearly two dozen new residential subdivisions in the works and a population that is expected to approach 100,000 in the next 20 years, Kyle leaders say the city’s growing pains are necessary to accommodate its inevitable growth.

Kyle residents can expect to see 21 new subdivisions built throughout the city over the next few years. According to city staff, the total number of proposed lots is nearly 47,000.

City Manager Scott Sellers said Kyle’s location and affordability mean growth cannot be avoided. But by preparing early, he said the city can save money and time.

With new subdivisions and new residents to fill them, Kyle is left with the issue of how to build roads, water and wastewater systems, and other types of infrastructure to serve them.

“We have to make tough decisions that our residents will need to pay for,” Sellers said. “That should be very temporary, in the grand scheme of things, but it’s something we can’t keep putting off. It’s part of the responsible growth.”

Infrastructure changes

“There are a lot of demands on our infrastructure because of the growth,” Sellers said. “Our road network is very heavily traveled now. Our water and sewer infrastructure is reaching capacity that was built years ago. So we are building additional capacity to serve the new growth.”

Kyle saw the explosion of new housing subdivisions coming years in advance, Planning Director Howard J. Koontz said, and city officials have been preparing for nearly as long.

“The idea of bringing more and more [developments] in—really, we’re the busiest before it gets here,” Koontz said.

Infrastructure elements, such as roads, still need to be updated before new residents move in, he said.

“The county built those roads to a certain design standard within an expectation of a certain amount of traffic throughout the day,” Koontz said. “They are being grossly overloaded because they’re being used in a manner that was never envisioned. They literally just wore out.”

North Old Stagecoach Road, Bunton Lane and Grist Mill Road are three such streets that will serve new developments and need updating, including lane widening and strengthening, to accommodate the anticipated increase in traffic.

“Now, as we have future developments that keep growing out in the [extraterritorial jurisdiction], we are having them widen [roads] or dedicate right of way for these future road networks that are going to carry more vehicles,” Sellers said.

Water and wastewater connections have also proven to be a challenge, but the city works with new developers to provide solutions, such as subdivisions that share water towers. For example, one water tower located on the Anthem property, a subdivision made up of single-family homes just northwest of the city, will also provide water for Blanco River Ranch, Plum Creek Phase 2 and Kyle 57*, other developments located at lower elevations than Anthem. That way gravity does all the work to get water to each of the developments, Sellers said. Combined with the other subdivisions, the Anthem water tower will send water to over 12,000 homes.

“We don’t want that additional infrastructure [to maintain a water tower on each property]. They’ll all share one larger tower,” Sellers said. “It will cost a little more now but save money in the long run.”

Easing the tax burden

Kyle has the highest municipal tax rate in all of Hays County—and city projections indicating no sign of that changing—but Sellers said the growing pains experienced by the city are temporary.

“The burden of installing that infrastructure for future growth does fall upon our residents,” he said. “There will come a time when you don’t feel it as much, because there will be such a critical mass of growth that it brings the overall burden down.”

Residential growth will bring in more commercial properties to offset taxes as well, Koontz said.

“Development begets development,” he said. “We’ll get more as we grow off the strength of what’s being built.”

To help, the city aggressively recruits commercial offices, additional hotels and industries that bring new jobs to the area.

Economic Development Director Diana Blank-Torres said bringing RSI Inc., a high-tech manufacturing company, to Kyle in 2007 was an example of a successful acquisition for the city. Kyle officials are also working to ensure there is enough leftover land zoned for jobs—rather than allowing all of the vacant space to be zoned for residential developments.

“The council does want to do its part to keep the tax burden low,” Sellers said. “Eighty percent of our workforce in Kyle commutes to Austin to work. We want to bring the jobs to Kyle, and we are actively working on doing that. Those jobs follow rooftops.”