(Seguin) — Guadalupe County leaders say the work on the county’s draft Major Thoroughfare Plan is far from over.
This week, an estimated 400-450 people turned out for an “open house” style meeting at the Geronimo Community Center. Maps and draft plans were on display, giving attendees the chance to study proposed routes, ask questions, and leave written feedback. The event, which had no formal presentation, allowed people to come and go at their own pace.
Guadalupe County Judge Kyle Kutscher says although he is grateful for the strong turnout this past Tuesday, he understands that public participation cannot stop there.
“You’ve had engineers and county folks, and different people look at this plan to help facilitate this draft that includes TxDOT initiatives, city plans, past ETJ plans and projects along with county initiatives of preserving and protecting right of way,” said Kutscher. “But having the individuals that are impacted, that know the community and know the area because they know that street because they live on it or drive on it – again, it’s one of the most critical parts of the plan. For everybody that showed up and that has been involved, thank you very much. For those who have not or want to see that, you can view from our website the thoroughfare plan, but you can also make those comments.”
Kutscher says the next step for the county will be to review and consolidate all public comments received at the meeting.
Although the in-person meeting is over, a comment period is currently available online and will continue through Oct. 23 via the county’s website, guadalupeco-mtp.com.
Kutscher says he encourages residents to take advantage of this time to ask questions and share their perspectives.
“What we are doing is formulating the next steps in the plan now. What I’d like to see, and I think the court would agree, is we want to get the consolidated comments that were made by the members of the public at that public meeting and make those available to everybody so people can see what comments were made,” said Kutscher. “There’s been a recommendation to potentially either have an additional meeting or doing precinct meetings. That’s not set up in our budget with the engineer, but it is something we can do just with county staff.”
Kutscher says revisions to the draft plan will likely be based on public feedback. Once those changes are made, he says the updated maps could be released again for another round of public review.
“Potentially, there is going to be revisions considered by commissioner’s court and county staff based off of those comments,” Kutscher explained. “Then we should put that map back out so that people can review it again and then potentially have either the additional public meeting or individual precinct meetings before we ever go to consider approval of that plan with commissioner’s court. On a plan this large that affects this many people, it’s extremely important that we spend the time and do it right and not move hastily to make mistakes that negatively impact landowners and homeowners and taxpayers.”
According to Kutscher, the steps taken now will help identify and preserve roadway corridors before any kind of future development begins.
“The whole basis of a thoroughfare plan is to have future roadways identified to preserve and protect that right of way, but it’s also to hold the development community accountable,” said Kutscher. “If we do have a future proposed roadway located on a map and that developer buys that 100 – or 200-acre tract and comes in and that line is shown across that tract, they are required to work with us to preserve that right of way and potentially build that section of roadway at their cost. If the county does not have those future roadways identified, we are going to have congestion problems, access issues, safety-related issues, and when it becomes so bad and the public needs the county to do something, our only recourse would be to use taxpayer dollars to go out and either buy or condemn property to potentially bulldoze structures to build a roadway.”
Again, county officials say public involvement now will not only help avoid those kinds of costly fixes down the road but could potentially stop future interruptions of their property.
Residents can now download maps, review materials, and submit comments at guadalupeco-mtp.com. Residents can also see those maps in person by stopping by the Development Center lobby located at 310 IH 10 West. The Development Center is open Mondays through Fridays from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The deadline to submit public input is Oct. 23.