No introductions were needed when Bee Cave City Council unanimously appointed Travis Askey as the new city manager Dec. 10. Although he had served as interim city manager since his predecessor, Frank Salvato, left the position Sept. 10, the South Dakota native's history with the city dates back more than a decade to a time when Bee Cave was only a village. Askey arrived as Bee Cave's deputy city administrator in 2004 to find the growing area grappling with issues similar to what Newport Beach, California, had dealt with during his tenure there as its fiscal operations manager. "[As I did in Newport Beach], when you deal with billing, parking citations, towing cars and turning off peoples water, you learn a lot about customer service," he said. "This business is a people business, and you have to provide good customer service."
How do you reconcile the growth of Bee Cave with maintaining its small-town feel?
Bee Cave happens to be at the confluence of Bee Caves Road, Hwy. 71 and [RR] 620. Hamilton Pool Road has become a corridor as well. It's a challenge, certainly, to find the balance between development and livability. We have to constantly manage the demand for growth in the area and be realistic in our approach [to respond to it]. Mayor [Caroline] Murphy has been our mayor for 15 or 16 years. The city's long tenure of the same staff on its commissions and council has helped maintain its small-town feel.
Do you foresee the citys infrastructuresuch as water and roadskeeping pace with its development?
[RR] 620, Bee Caves Road, and Hamilton Pool Road are all managed by the Texas Department of Transportation. When it comes to utilities, infrastructure, and the West Travis County Public Utility Agency, we have to be sure we are on the same page. While there will be differences of opinion on what the best path is, you hope that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one. Hopefully people in the future will look back and think we did a good job of managing what was in front of us.
What effect will The Backyard and The Terraces projects have on Bee Cave?
All of the decision points involved in the projects—including the added traffic and volume on Bee Cave Parkway and RR 620—had already been identified as areas we were going to need to address moving forward with the development. We talked on and on about studios. There aren't many municipalities who are looking at the future of having studios as a part of their allocation of businesses. It's a little bit rare. There are people who are concerned about [the project's] sustainability. The Shops and The Galleria faced the same challenges [as The Backyard and Terraces] when they were created—added growth, added cars, and added traffic. Hopefully, the result is that each project adds value to [the community].
