Little Elm Trail listed among projects awaiting voter approval
A long-anticipated plan to connect segments of Little Elm Trail could relieve traffic at two of Cedar Park's most congested intersections.
Williamson County voters will decide Nov. 5 whether to approve a $315 million bond package that includes $4.22 million to connect parts of Little Elm Trail from Lakeline Boulevard to US 183. The project is among several Cedar Park and Leander roadway and park improvements that would benefit from the bond.
If the bond passes, work on Little Elm Trail could be one of the first projects to have money allocated for it by the county, said Commissioner Cynthia Long, whose Precinct 2 includes Cedar Park and Leander.
"One of the real key drivers for Little Elm Trail is that it would create parallel capacity—in layman's terms, a reliever—to Cypress Creek Road," said Long, who called the US 183/Cypress Creek Road and Lakeline Boulevard/Cypress Creek Road intersections two of the worst in the city. "This project gives people an alternative."
Long said the Little Elm Trail project also creates more mobility throughout one of Cedar Park's densest residential areas. Currently the residential collector road is composed of three unconnected sections. The existing portions of the road were built as part of a long-standing agreement created by the city.
Who builds what
In early 2004, the city of Cedar Park and various landowners agreed on the Lakeline Village Roadway Phasing Agreement, a plan that settled who exactly is responsible for building certain sections of Little Elm Trail.
"That's why you see some portions developed now," Cedar Park Engineering Director Darwin Marchell said.
Developers have made good on commitments to build their portion of the roadway, he said, leaving three remaining portions for the city to construct, including roadway gaps behind Randalls grocery store and the National Oilwell Varco building. Bond money would also be used to expand the existing portion of Little Elm Trail in the Red Oak subdivision to four lanes.
MileStone Community Builders will complete the final developer-owned portion of the planned roadway. The residential development group will extend Little Elm Trail from Reed Elementary—a completed school building that has sat vacant since being built two years ago due to lack of funding—to US 183 across from Twin Lakes Family YMCA. The project will cost the developer $3.4 million, said Sam Roberts, Cedar Park assistant city manager, during a February council meeting.
Project potential
When pitching this project to City Council again in June, Roberts called the Little Elm Trail expansion the city's "biggest bang for the buck."
"Little Elm is pretty much a no-brainer," he said. "This project will serve as a really great east-west connector and an alternative connection to [US] 183 where we are rapidly seeing a bottleneck situation happening at Lakeline [Boulevard] and 183."
Roberts also cited possible increased economic development opportunities, particularly in large tracts of land immediately east of Randalls grocery store. There will also be some mixed-commercial projects created near US 183 and Little Elm Trail where MileStone is developing land, he previously told council.
Councilman Mitch Fuller also expressed the need to connect the roadway to allow greater access to Reed Elementary, which is expected to open in time for the 2014–15 school year.
"Everything about this—the public safety aspect, the access this is a mobility nightmare waiting to happen if we don't tackle this project and be very aggressive about this project," Fuller said in February, suggesting the city use 4B Community Development Corporation money—a portion of city sales tax dollars—to help advance the project sooner.
Timeline
Council members agreed in June to budget $550,000 in 4B money to cover the project's soft costs—the money needed to acquire land, survey the area and design the roadway, Marchell said.
If the bond is approved Nov. 5, he said city staff will need to go back to the 4B Community Development Corporation to finalize the expenditure.
If successful, design work could begin by late December to early January, Marchell said, and will take up to nine months. The rest of the project will be contingent upon when the county makes the bond money for the project available, he said.
