Newly elected New Braunfels Mayor Michael French said infrastructure, growth and rebuilding trust with the community will be some of his top priorities after winning the June runoff election with 62.39% of the vote.
He said his early priorities will be to fix roadways like Common Street, Hwy. 46, FM 725, FM 1044 and Loop 337. Hwy. 46, FM 725 and Loop 337 are Texas Department of Transportation roads.
Common Street and FM 1044 are city roads that recently received improvements, and Commons Street is receiving improvements following approval of the voter-approved 2023 Bond, Proposition A.
“We need our roads to be better,” French said. “We have to work with some roads TxDOT is in charge of ... I don’t want projects going on for months at a time. I want projects done at a good pace.”
French said he wants to advance local funding when a state road has traffic.
“If our roads are very low on TxDOT's statewide priority list, we cannot simply sit still and wait. We can use local funding to force the timeline. New Braunfels will simply front the initial engineering or construction money to accelerate the project, and TxDOT will simply reimburse New Braunfels on a later date.”
FM 1044 has also received some improvements, including new traffic lights and various intersection improvements, as previously reported by Community Impact. French said installing these lights did not solve the traffic problem.
“We need smart vehicle detection technology to detect vehicles, so lights change based on real-time traffic flow. This will work well during school and working hours,” French said.
French said he thinks the city “purposely wants to transform” the west side of New Braunfels.
“There’s a lot of low-income businesses and families that live there, but we need to help that area out,” he said.
The city is currently in the process of developing transportation projects on the city’s west side to work alongside the West End Area Master Plan to improve quality of life. Officials previously told Community Impact that they are working with residents and businesses in that area to address some of their concerns with infrastructure.
Growth has also been a major topic in New Braunfels. French said he wants to stop passing high-capacity zoning for commercial and heavy residential.
“I really don’t want to see that. I want to make sure that we take hold of how many rezoning requests move through the City Council and we start targeting low-impact rezoning,” he said.
Community Impact also asked French what his top priorities would be going into this fiscal year’s budget. French said he needs to break down what the city is spending and that he was going to “tear it apart.”
He said he wants to give law enforcement and first responders higher pay so the city can compete with neighboring counties.
In September 2025, the City Council approved a $114.6 million budget for fiscal year 2025-26 that gave a 3% cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, and any applicable market adjustments to non-uniform staff. The budget also provided a 2.5% COLA, applicable step plan increase, and any applicable market adjustments to uniform staff, as previously reported by Community Impact.
French also said violent crimes are on the rise, which is why he wants to form a Crime Prevention and Control District, or CPCD, which would be funded through sales tax.
A CPCD would require an election and can be created by a municipality that is partially or wholly located in a county with a population of more than 5,000 people, according to Chapter 363 of the Texas Constitution.
If passed by voters, a temporary board for the CPCD would have to form and approve a two-year crime control plan and a two-year budget plan that includes a detailed list of the crime control and crime prevention strategies to be supported by the district. The crime control plan and budget plan must also be adopted in the same manner as provided for the adoption of a proposed annual budget, according to the Texas Constitution.
The New Braunfels Police Department’s 2025 Annual Report found that aggravated assaults and domestic violence incidents have risen by 7%, although overall crimes decreased by 5% in 2025.
French said he is against data centers and also wants to support small businesses, and is against tax breaks and incentives for big-box stores.
“If developers and box stores want to do business here, they have to pay to play,” French said.
French also said he wanted to see more art highlighting the city’s heritage, specifically Spanish, Mexican and Native American.
In April, the City Council adopted an arts and culture master plan that outlines ways to support local artists and cultural organizations.
Another one of French’s priorities is the culture at City Hall.
“We have to respect the citizens a lot more,” he said. “I don’t want the negativity at City Hall, and that’s the biggest challenge. We have to work together to listen to the people that made this big change.”
