By Samantha Smith

Plans for Buda’s new municipal buildings were approved by the city council May 3 amid a few public concerns about flood dangers at the building site.

Buda citizens T.J. Higginbotham and Carl and Betsy Urban spoke out at the meeting and addressed their concerns about the site having past issues of flooding and what the city was planning on doing about it.

Higginbotham and the Urbans expressed concern about the prior knowledge the city had about the drainage issues at the site, but still decided to move forward with construction there.

“Doubling down on a bad decision never makes a good decision,” Higginbotham said. 

When a previous plan for the new government buildings was proposed to council, there were concerns about the drainage functionality as well as the unfavorable design of the emergency services building. 

Council unanimously approved the plans with an amendment that council pursue a natural gas generator versus a diesel generator for the emergency services building.

Page and J.E. Dunn Construction worked in conjunction to redesign the plans to include multiple sustainable features, as well as address the drainage concerns and adjust the design of the emergency services building.

By including a 5-foot deep drainage trench throughout the complex, Page believes that it has addressed the drainage concerns of the site.

Page also informed council that any drainage concerns on the site could be engineered out at any time in the future.

The new plan for the emergency services building was presented with an accurate cost estimate that did not exceed the overall budget for the project.

Mayor Todd Ruge, who opposed the original plan for the emergency services building, said that he was pleased with the design changes and that it “included all the features council wanted.”

The sustainable features of the new municipal buildings include energy efficient lighting, using recycled and sustainably sourced building materials throughout the buildings, and installing water efficient appliances. 

But some council members, such as Angela Kennedy, wondered why sustainable design features that were visible to the public, such as solar panels and rainwater collection systems, were not included in the redesign. 

Page Architects representative Ginny Chilton said that the building would be retrofitted with the possibility of adding photovoltaic cells (solar panels) at a later date. She added the installation of rain water collection systems and “rain gardens” could happen in the future with further funding. 

But Kennedy expressed her disappointment with the firm’s design team for not including these visible sustainable features for the public at Tuesday’s meeting.

“I want to say that I’m disappointed that those features were not included in the original design and the cost estimate from the very beginning, and now that we’re at the end of this process, we have the option to spend more money to include these features,” Kennedy said. 

Kennedy added in a later interview that council may have learned a lesson for future endeavors of the same caliber. 

“It might have been an oversight of council not to create a sustainability commission at the beginning of the planning process to ensure that council wishes on sustainability features were met,” Kennedy said. 

The aesthetic design appeal of the new municipal buildings also came under council scrutiny on May 3. 

“It looks like an enlarged Kyle city box with windows,” said council member George Haehn. 

Kennedy said during the meeting she was “thinking more vertical, stately, and modern limestone, more of a courthouse feel.”

Putting the differences in looks aside, Kennedy said she was confident the building would be “beautiful” when finished. 

“I’m not an architect so I know that they had to include utility as well as design style into the plan, and I’m confident that it will be a beautiful building when it’s finished,” Kennedy said.