Hays County will host an FM 150 Character Study open house Oct. 22 at Thurman’s Mansion in Driftwood.

The purpose of the meeting is to share with the community ideas for the FM 150 corridor from Arroyo Ranch Road near Kyle to RR 12 in Dripping Springs. County officials have said they plan to construct improvements on FM 150 to increase capacity while also preserving many of the natural features of the area. Potential changes to that portion of the road include additional vehicle and bicycle lanes, sidewalks and aesthetic features.

The county created a Citizens Advisory Panel in 2014 to provide input on the plan and communicate to residents in the area some of the proposed ideas for the corridor. Project Engineer Joe Cantalupo said the CAP has provided valuable input so far.

“The reason [Hays County] appointed a citizens advisory panel is they want to address the future need of FM 150, but at the same time they wanted to do it differently, meaning they didn’t want a bunch of planners and engineers to get into a room, figure out what the problem was, figure out what they thought was important about the area, develop a solution and then spend nine months trying to convince everyone we’re all geniuses,” Cantalupo said.

The county’s transportation master plan calls for FM 150 to accommodate four lanes of travel from RR 12 in Dripping Springs to near Arroyo Ranch Road in Kyle. That portion of the road currently consists of only two lanes.

Cantalupo said one concept that will be presented at the Oct. 22 meeting involves expanding the road to four lanes from RR 12 in Dripping Springs to near FM 1826 in Driftwood. From 1826 to near FM 3237 the current two-lane alignment would stay in place and an additional two-lane alignment would be built slightly north of road. The road would then go back to four lanes from FM 3237 to Arroyo Ranch Road.

That concept would not only increase vehicle capacity in the area, Cantalupo said, but also provide an alternate route for the flood-prone portion of the road that crosses Onion Creek.

Another concept in the plan includes the potential to extend FM 1826 to RR 12 from its current dead end at FM 150. That would solve a mounting congestion problem on Elder Hill Road, which many drivers use to cut from RR 12 to FM 150 and north to get onto FM 1826.

Cantalupo said nothing has been finalized, as the plans that will be shown Oct. 22 provide a “100,000-foot view” of the potential solutions.

“The point is, if the county’s transportation master plan thought this was an issue at 150,000 feet, we think it’s an issue at 100,000 feet,” he said. “When we get down to 50,000 feet and 25,000 feet, we’ll figure out exactly where this [road] goes.”

The CAP and project technical team, comprised of engineers and planners, are also considering how to improve safety at Darden Hill’s intersection with FM 150. A new school is planned for construction on Darden Hill Road, and the increased traffic could present a safety concern in the future, Cantalupo said.

Other plans to be presented at the Oct. 22 meeting are what Cantalupo called “transition zones” throughout the corridor to signal to drivers that they are entering areas with unique character. Transition zones could include special signage and landscaping among other features. Cantalupo used Elder Hill Road and part of FM 150 north of Driftwood as an example of an area that would be ideal for a transition zone.

"You can do a better job as people are entering that community [of Driftwood] of letting them know that, 'Hey we're coming in to some place special,'" he said. "Right now when you drive on FM 150 the only thing you see is a reduction in speed limit. It doesn't let you know you're coming up on a cool little spot."

The county is also in the midst of a project seeking to potentially realign FM 150 at Arroyo Ranch Road away from downtown Kyle to I-35. In April the county announced it had chosen to realign the road through Corridor C, which will take the road south of Center Street and east of the Blanco River to connect with Yarrington Road at I-35.