BUDA, Texas (KXAN) — Ranch to Market Road 967 in Buda is a busy road seeing high traffic at peak hours in the morning and evening. The road links several neighborhoods with Farm to Market Road 1626 and Main Street in Buda.
Tuesday, MileStone Community Builders developers will meet with the Buda City Council to further discuss the proposed development project.
The proposed Persimmon development project has faced some opposition in part because it would bring more traffic. However, developers said they have plans to reduce the impact by building a connector between RM 967 and FM 1626.
MileStone Community Builders propose building the FM 1626 Connector and what they call Garlic Creek Parkway. The connector would essentially travel east to west. They said this would provide relief to those two RM 967 intersections and the thousands that travel through these areas each day. This development would also pave the way for connecting State Highway 45 Southwest to Interstate 35.
They added they want to make sure they get this done as early as possible before too many homes are built. Development officials said there are also plans to add a roundabout in the area that would be up to four lanes. TxDOT approved the north-south parkway project and they expect to start construction on it soon. It would take 10 months to complete, developers said.
TxDOT data shows roundabouts help reduce crash points between drivers and keep traffic moving.
However, in order to make that east-west connector between RM 967 and FM 1626 happen, it’s going to take several parties to say yes.
“Staff is still evaluating all of those, but that too will take a lot of jurisdictions to cooperate on because it’s Hays County, Travis County, and then you’re looking at Buda into Austin jurisdictions for consideration of looking at some of those roadway networks,” said Melissa McCollum, the director of planning with the City of Buda Planning Department. “They are definitely trying to front-load some of the improvements and capacity to have alternative ways in and out of that subdivision.”
Developers said the development “will feature wide sidewalks, bike lanes, trails, street trees lining every street, interconnected parks, greenbelts, open spaces, homes with generous front porches, and a local retail destination.”
Amenities also include a disk golf course and playgrounds.
Other elements of the proposed development include repurposing a dairy barn more than 100 years old and a farmhouse in the area to create a community center.
Council would like to see the development incorporate tree preservation by preserving at least 75% of Signature Trees and 85% of Heritage Trees.
“We’re still, I would say not quite at the very beginning but we’re still evaluating all the factors that go into this development,” McCollum said. “It’s by all means not approved yet but they absolutely are trying to get consideration from a council based on feedback that they’ve had at previous workshops, meetings, kind of doing the next step on where we want to go from here.”
Developers tell KXAN they plan to request to meet before the Planning and Zoning Commission in a month during Tuesday’s Buda City Council.
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