On Oct. 2, San Marcos City Council reversed previous decisions and directed the city's engineering staff to remove plans for a controversial roundabout from a project to widen Hunter Road/Hopkins Street.

San Marcos residents had consistently opposed the roundabout, which would have been built at the intersection of Hopkins and West San Antonio streets. Dozens of people wore "No Roundabout on Hopkins!" T-shirts to the Oct. 2 council meeting.

"With all the whiz-bang roundabout exhibits and sales pitches that city staff and the Austin roundabout pied piper have plied this council with, it's understandable the council previously supported this thing," Bill Taylor, a San Marcos automotive dealer, told council members. "However, one thing continues to be overlooked, and that is the simple fact that the majority of citizen taxpayers in San Marcos do not want this roundabout on Hopkins Street."

Taylor, who is not the same Bill Taylor running for San Marcos City Council in November, said he and other organizers gathered 400 signatures opposing the plans last week.

Instead of a roundabout, a center turn lane on Hopkins Street will allow southbound drivers to make left turns onto West San Antonio Street. Some residents urged council to build a traffic signal at the intersection, but the project engineer said the traffic on West San Antonio Street did not warrant the expense.

Although they did not take a formal vote on the changed plans, council members Kim Porterfield and John Thomaides opposed the decision.

"[A roundabout] is absolutely the best option," Thomaides said. "It's the safest. It moves traffic best, it costs less than a traffic light in the future, and I think it's a great entryway into a historic district, our first neighborhood."

In addition to removing the roundabout from the project, council also directed staff members to remove plans to extend West San Antonio Street to Belvin Street.

The Texas Department of Transportation plans to widen Hunter Road/Hopkins Street from Wonder World Drive to north of Bishop Street and will construct a new bridge over Purgatory Creek.

The $9 million project is being funded by TxDOT and $4.2 million in savings from a previous project to build Wonder World Drive. TxDOT will begin seeking bids next week, and construction is scheduled to begin in March.