By Cyndy Slovak-Barton
Perfectly placed, perfect Kyle seemed to be the theme of the State of the City presentation at Tuesday’s Kyle Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
Mayor Todd Webster and City Manager Scott Sellers tag-teamed on the annual presentation, noting the new business developments that have come along in the past 20 years.
“In real estate, the saying is ‘location, location, location,’” Sellers said. “Where Kyle is located is perfect.”
Sitting on the I-35 corridor just south of Austin, Webster and Sellers said opportunities for the city abound.
And that development has grown the annual sales tax revenue to $4,237,213 in 2014 from $1,117,619 in 2006.
A large portion of the talk focused on infrastructure – roads, water and wastewater.
Webster said while the original plan on road construction was to space it out and build each of the five bond roads separately, one at a time, the council moved recently to pushing ahead on all five, simply because the roads are desperately needed.
The sale of the voter-approved $36 million bonds all at once means there is a lump sum increase in the tax rate, Webster said. But the upside was that, by doing it all at once, there would be savings in construction and other costs.
It took a lot of courage by the council to do all $36 million at once, but it was necessary, he said.
Sellers said that the push for sale of the road bonds was because of accelerating growth.
“A city that explodes overnight, a lot of our building has to come from bonds and debt,” he said.
With that in mind, the city management and council also did some one-time fixes when it found separate funds being held within the budget. Such fixes included revitalizing the ballfields and parks and restructuring the wastewater plant.
The driving force behind the growth is the need for homes, and the subsequent retail space that follows such development.
Walton Development, the sponsor of the luncheon, had earlier shown its four Hays County masterplan developments — one in Kyle’s city limits and one in its extra-territorial jurisdiction — with well over 1,600 single-family units. Another development north in the Buda region would add another 1,800 single-family units.
Such master plan developments along with the business explosion are adding to the tax base of the city.
“It’s like the genie was let out of the bottle. There’s a tremendous amount of capital being put in the community,” Webster said. “People, developers, business people are being very bullish on Kyle.”
Other items addressed in the state of the city were the reorganization of staff and the change in the city’s committee system.
Staff changes means a more open and revitalized set of employees, Webster said.
“It has reinvigorated the staff in a way that gives us positive results, positive attitudes,” he said. “It’s about people taking pride in their city.”
Resident committees were also reorganized and the number cut back.
“We took steps to make the city more efficient,” Webster said.
Sellers said the new city rules allow the council to establish committees with very specific goals and missions. Once those missions are met, the committee will automatically dissolve.
He said the city staff is streamlining the application process for committee positions and applications will be sought soon for new slots.
