Incentivizing asphalt

At a land market conference held last week in San Antonio, Charles Gilliland, a research economist at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, commented that the price of land in the Texas Hill Country makes it a “Little California.” For example, in Bandera, Blanco, Kendall and Kerr counties, the median price per acre was $7,086 last year. That’s up 22 percent since 2005 and up more than 118 percent since 2001!

 But often researchers, policy-makers, and the public overlook an essential consideration: Just as if you owned the original Mona Lisa, Hill Country land is only worth all that money if you wish to sell it.

For those of us who are trying to hold on to multigeneration family ranches, all this escalation of value creates is problems.

Our “reward” for providing the societal benefits of food, fiber, shelter, recreation, water quality/quantity, aquifer infiltration, carbon sequestration, wetlands protection, wildlife habitat, endangered species habitat, creek-bank stabilization, springs protection, scenic views, and open space is ever-increasing property taxes and death taxes that are the equivalent of armed robbery.

It should be no wonder that natural resources are in trouble, especially in the Texas Hill Country. All the incentives are focused toward covering it with asphalt.

David K. Langford
Vice President Emeritus
Texas Wildlife Association
Comfort, Texas

Water precious resource

Some are looking to Austin to pass a bill that will enable high-density growth in an area of Kendall County where lowering density is a highly valued tool meant to preserve natural resources like water.

They have said much about the benefits to the business community, economic development and public schools. But with opportunity comes liability.

Consider the opening sentence of Senate Bill 1245: “A Bill to be an Act relating to the creation of Kendall County Water Control and Improvement District No. 2; providing authority to impose a tax and issue bonds; granting the power of eminent domain.”

Once these powers are granted, development is to proceed using surface water from Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA).

This is the same strategy that was used to gain approval for a new Municipal Utility District. Yet, both developers actively assert a “right” to use groundwater in the future.

Surface water from GBRA ostensibly reduces strained water resources for existing communities whose sole source is groundwater. However, when existing needs have been met, “excess” GBRA water has been contracted to developers eager to build new subdivisions anywhere a pipeline can reach.

As a result, creating a MUD or WCID has suddenly become a popular development tool in the Hill Country. These new forms of government can circumvent county subdivision rules that are meant to limit density and protect scant recharge.

This is a critical liability for the majority who live beyond the proposed district boundaries whose sole source will remain groundwater.

The narrow allocation of water resources to some and widespread infringement on the water resources of many is not in the best interest of this citizen.

Some have found a supporter in Senator Wentworth. He has heard what that group thinks. It’s time let him know what you think.

Milan J. Michalec
Kendall County

Thanks for the help

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the two ladies from Keep Boerne Beautiful who were picking up Home Depot and Whataburger trash on Coughran Road Saturday.  We try to keep it picked up but there is so much that it’s difficult to keep up with it.

Thanks, ladies!

Don and Jeanine Titus
Boerne, Texas

Scouts contribute to quality

I am Jourdan Lees, Eagle Scout candidate with Boy Scout Troop 407 sponsored by First Baptist Church. On Saturday, I led a group of neighbors, friends and fellow Boy Scouts to xeriscape the traffic island at the corner of Lohmann and North School streets (in Boerne).

As my father has been involved in the Quality of life Bond proposals, I saw this project as an opportunity to improve the quality of life for the local residents, the parents who take their children to and from Fabra Elementary School and those who simply travel North School Street from time to time. It is my way and a way for all the volunteers working on this project to contribute to Boerne’s Master Plan and quality of life.

A big thank you goes to the City Public works Department for approving this Eagle Rank Boy Scout project and providing traffic control, Rudy Nadler and his backhoe, Matthew Schoch with African Violet Nursery who provided me with design and drought-resistant plant ideas and the many neighbors, friends and fellow Scouts who are doing the work that will beautify this corner of the city.

I hope you will be able to share with others what we are doing the enhance the quality of life in Boerne and perhaps encourage other residents in Boerne to think of ways they can personally contribute to improving our city.

Jourdan Lees
Boerne, Texas

Quality of life

As a new resident of Boerne and a homeowner, the proposed bond initiative reminds me of my former community. In a small farming town that was experiencing growth and a strain on existing facilities (i.e. police, fire, parks and other amenities) our forward-looking community leaders sought solutions that would provide a “quality of life” for present and future residents of our growing community.

As in Boerne, those proposed solutions would have to be borne by the property owners in the form of increased property taxes. Bonds were offered up and supported by the community to expand facilities for police, fire protection and other projects addressed in the community Master Plan.

A retiree on a fixed income, I feel the 6 cents per $100 of assessed valuation is a fair price to meet current and future needs of our growing community. Growth is inevitable, but to do nothing will come back and haunt us further down the line. I am reminded of former President Kennedy who said, “Change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”

I urge support for the five bond propositions as they are devoted to ensure the “quality of life” for the citizens of Boerne, now and for the future.

Dennis Lane
Boerne, Texas

Roadways report ready

The Thoroughfare Planning Citizens Committee is ready to present its draft final report to the public for comment. The draft is available via the Kendall County Web site (www.co.kendall.tx.us/tpcc.htm). Citizens also will find a response for to provide feedback to the committee. The deadline for submitting feedback forms is May 4. The responses will be reviewed and considered by the entire committee prior to presenting its final recommendations to Commissioners Court in May.

The TPCCC will conduct a public workshop at the First Baptist Church gymnasium, 601 S. School St., in Boerne on 9 a.m. to noon Saturday. There will be no information available at the workshop other than what is posted on the Web site.

Changes in the county’s roadway system have been discussed for 55 years with no action taken; hence the dilemma we find ourselves in today. Key to the information we have gathered are the known developments that have been approved and are projected to double Kendall County’s population in the next 10 years. Also, there continues to be a flow of new proposed developments through Boerne City Hall and the Kendall County Courthouse.

New developments and the associated growth will impact quality of life and infrastructure. Without new and improved roads, the quality of life for Kendall County will deteriorate. The maintenance on the existing roads will likely become a constant, costly drain of county funds and do not solve any growth issues. More importantly, health, life and safety could be affected as law enforcement, fire department and EMS service response times will decrease due to lack of safety improvements and inadequate connectivity. Many of the committee’s recommendations are strictly safety improvements. The perception that “if you don’t build a road, then people will not come” is simply not true.

The recommendations are the result of hundreds of hours of work donated by the committee members, which performed its own road count and used the input of independent transportation engineers and representatives from Texas Parks and Wildlife, Kendall County Sheriff’s Department, Kendall County, TxDOT, BISD, the City of Boerne, GBRA, Cow Creek Water Conservation District, the Cibolo Nature Center and transportation departments in adjacent counties.

Rod Fowler
TPCC chairman