Commentary
By Bill Peterson
BUDA – Tucked back a quarter of a mile off RM 967 near FM 1626 is Buda's brand new YMCA, which opened this spring.
One wonders why it sits so far off the intersection, but that's the land that went to the YMCA when it dealt with the city of Buda and its Economic Development Corporation (EDC). Once the Sportsplex Park near the intersection is completed in December or January, you won't be able to find the YMCA without a compass. It's a little off the beaten path.
So, the YMCA went to the Buda City Council last week for a signage variance that would allow a 40-feet-high sign instead of the 12-foot sign allowed by ordinance. And the city council refused, as is its custom when dealing with tall sign requests.
Without bashing the YMCA for wanting a tall sign, it's hard to understand how it would make much difference. It's not like a hotel on the highway. People aren't driving idly through a strange town looking for a YMCA. Anyone at that intersection probably knows the lay of the land and, since the YMCA is mostly populated by members, anyone who wants to go there will know where it is.
Being fair, though, the YMCA should be allowed some kind of directional sign on RM 967 near the entry road for the facility, just to help lost drivers, if nothing else.
The larger news for the city came when the EDC turned over the 93-acre Sportsplex Park to the city. In one of its first endeavors, the EDC bought the land at RM 967 and FM 1626 for development in 2003, hoping a park with soccer and baseball fields could bring in various types of tournaments, which would generate revenue for the city.
That won't work, of course, without hotels, retail and restaurants, at least some of which would be situated around the area. And it's hard to guess how quickly any of that can happen without a widening of the two roads.
Commentary
By Bill Peterson
KYLE – The summer seven-on-seven football season will end without either of the Hays CISD teams playing in the state tournament. Lehman, of course, is still getting football off the ground, while a good number of top Hays players were occupied this summer with baseball.
But we're not so concerned here with football as with school policy. Once again, Lehman football coach and athletic director Steve Davis is tormented by players from his attendance zone leaking into the Hays program. Davis might have won the battle a little more than a year ago, when the Hays CISD trustees reluctantly restricted their transfer policy for high school kids. But a loophole remains. Hays has an Army ROTC program and Lehman does not, so football players are leaving Lehman for Hays under the pretense of ROTC. Davis said he's losing eight incoming freshmen players this year to Hays’ ROTC program.
Davis has to be wondering what he's gotten himself into. Other districts add high schools, enforce attendance zones and don't wind up with the new high school putting half of its kids on free and reduced lunch while kids with resources step through loopholes to the established high school.
One local example that endlessly fascinates Lehman coaches is the situation in the Schertz-Cibilo-Universal City school district, where the original attendance zones for the new Steele High School were drawn so favorably that trustees redrew the lines to help the established high school, Clemens.
Back when the Hays CISD planned the attendance zones, school officials wanted to avoid a Buda-Kyle (north-south) split, and they wanted to avoid a rich-poor (west-east) split. They've ended up with both splits, though their casual attendance zone policy alleviates the Buda-Kyle split by intensifying the rich-poor split.
Growth in Kyle will not help Lehman so long as well-resourced kids in the zone are waved through the loopholes to Hays. And Kyle has a bit at stake, too.
At the moment, Kyle is considering a game plan to become the economic anchor in the southern tier of Austin's metropolitan area. Meanwhile, the Austin Home Builders Association (HBA) has a different idea about Kyle, which is why the HBA is suing Kyle over residential codes requiring more expensive houses. The HBA says the codes passed by a majority-minority city council discriminate against minorities.
One wonders why the HBA would push such an absurd lawsuit. Can it be a sinister attempt to write housing policy for the Austin area in the courts, designating Kyle as a depository for low-income workers? Would the HBA ghettoize Kyle?
And why would the school district support policies with the effect of ghettoizing Kyle? It's important for Lehman High School to keep the well-resourced kids within its zone because those kids have the best chance and they can lift kids who are less fortunate by at least showing them possibilities. A healthier high school leads to a healthier community. Kyle needs for the school district to put Lehman on firmer footing.
Let's just say, also, that if the HBA can tell Kyle to build only starter homes and if the school district is going to position the high school in Kyle as the district's poor high school, then Kyle's going to have trouble enticing high wage earners associated with the coming Seton Hospital to set up residence in town.
As always, the fates of Kyle and the Hays CISD are tightly linked. Though Hays High School can also properly be said to be a Kyle high school, one suspects the city should press the school district on Lehman's behalf. Maybe Lehman's football team would win a few more games in the bargain, but that's beside the point.
