A new approximately $65 million Hays County facility could be developed on the city of Kyle’s east side. County and HDR Architecture officials provided the City Council with an update on the Hays County East Side Campus on May 5.
The full story
The city of Kyle executed a memorandum of understanding with Hays County in August, agreeing to combine the development of three projects: the Hays County East Side Campus, a regional animal shelter and Kyle Vista Park.
The three-story facility will serve as an administrative building, housing 175 total staff members and a variety of services, according to agenda documents, including:
- Sheriff’s office
- Precinct 2 Constable, Justice of the Peace and Commissioner’s offices
- Elections, budget, auditors and tax offices
- Veterans services
- Adult and juvenile probation offices
- County administrator and clerk
- Office of Emergency Management
- Precinct 1 visitors office
“As your growing community is happening, you need to have a lot more services that [Hays County] wants to get closer to your citizens,” said Steve Knowles, HDR Architecture design principal.
Nick Thanos, Kitchell senior project manager, presented updates to the work being done on the Hays County East Side Campus, including:
- Completion of a needs assessment
- Started negotiations with the city of Kyle
- Developed a conceptual design
- Developed a project budget
- Began developing schematic designs
Kitchell is Hays County’s consulting firm for the East Side Campus project.
The $65 million project will be funded through certificates of obligation issued by Hays County in January, said Kandice Boutté, county administrator. The COs were included in the tax rate and will not cause any rate increase.
The discussion
Council members voiced a number of concerns with the project as currently proposed, ranging from issues with the conceptual design to what services will be housed in the administrative building.
Mayor Yvonne Flores-Cale took to social media to voice her concerns surrounding the placement of probation offices near two local schools, Chapa Middle School and Science Hall Elementary.
She voiced her desire to hear community input on the project before moving forward and requested the completion of a traffic analysis for the area so she may fully understand the facility’s potential impact.
“I need to make sure I get our resident feedback and to see how they feel about this because that was dedicated park space,” Flores-Cale said. “I question what is going to be the highest and best use to go along with our animal care facility.”
