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Buda city affairsPosted November 13, 2007, 8:40 a.m.
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Hays Highway Editor
BUDA – When John Trube cut the ribbon on a truck bypass to keep 18-wheelers off Buda's Main Street at the end of July, he didn't really think his work as mayor was done. But after five years doing that unpaid job, Trube decided it was time to go.
Trube was president of Jardine's Foods when he first ran for mayor in May of 2002, after the city council tried to blame an infamous wastewater problem on local businesses, Jardine's among them. Trube won without opposition, then proceeded to make some sense out of the Buda's growth, principally by advocating the small city's interests when a major national outfitter, Cabela's, moved to Buda and opened in 2004.
With Cabela's bound to anchor retail growth and increase traffic on Buda's portion of IH-35, Trube worked with the state government to expedite road improvements, including a coming business loop to service future retail business on the highway's east side.
"We were trying to make something out of nothing," Trube said of his early days as mayor. "We were just a little, bitty town without a lot of money and not a lot of respect on the corridor."
Trube resigned at the start of August. The city council honored Trube for his service on Nov. 5 with a plaque, a gavel, a few laughs and short speeches.
"This is light years from where we were," Buda Mayor Pro Tem Bobby Lane said. "His dedication, his leadership and his business savvy have brought us a long way."
Trube has recently married a new wife, Caroline, and is in the process of moving to Austin. Meanwhile, he remains interested in the future of Buda, which he helped to stamp.
The Hays Highway spoke with Trube outside City Hall that night to learn his beliefs about how the city should proceed. Among other matters, Trube spoke about the value of mixed uses downtown, what the city should do about a garbage dump that blights its gateway, and his own future.
Hays Highway: What are you doing now?
John Trube: I'm mostly focused on real estate.
HH : And your real estate is in this area?
JT : I have very little real estate left in Buda. I'm kind of focused on Caldwell, Williamson and Travis Counties, a little in Hays, but mostly in those other areas.
HH : Are you moving out of this area?
JT : I'm not totally moved to Austin, but in the long term I think I will be.
HH : Why the move to Austin?
JT : That's where my wife wants to live.
HH : What needs to happen in Buda, in your estimation? The town is a much different place than when you first got involved.
JT : They need to capitalize on what has been accomplished thus far. Continue to foster the relationships at the state level and even at the federal level that we've established over the last five-plus years, worked very hard to establish, particularly with TxDOT. I think they need to focus on quality and not quantity. Whatever is coming in, make sure it's not to the detriment of any developer, but that it's a good, quality project, whether it be housing or commercial or even industrial.
Buda is in a position now, with a good, steady stream of sales tax and high appraisals in terms of its ad valorem (property taxes). I think it's in a pretty stable place, revenuewise. Work to attract good, quality projects to town. Continue to execute the comp(rehensive) plan that's in place. I think they need to update the comp plan a bit. We were updating the UDC (Unified Development Code) pretty significantly when I was leaving. I'm sure the UDC still needs work. But the comp plan, overall, I think, needs a little updating. It's aged.
HH : What kinds of updating does the comp plan need?
JT : I think they need to review the future land use map and review how some of that zoning played out. I still think the sign ordinance needs work. There's some CIP (Capital Improvement Projects) stuff that needs to be looked at. And there's still some drainage issues in this town that needs to be dealt with. The city, in terms of its staff and where it operates, is outgrowing even this new building (the $1.5 million city hall opened in 2003).
HH : What kind of town can Buda be? What is the upside for Buda as a future?
JT : I think it can be one of those really kind of special suburban communities that people like to own homes in to escape the rat race that will exist and already exists, frankly, in Austin on many layers. So, it can be one of those really nice, quality of life kind of low crime, predictable, comfortable, good school district – just a really safe, quality place to live. With the green space that's being developed here in the parks, it's the kind of community that you can come home to and there's no reason you need to leave on the weekends. And, hopefully, as they attract quality jobs to the area, then you won't have so many commuters.
HH : What might the future of Buda be as an artistic community?
JT : It's got that potential and, of course, the old timers know that it used to be that. I think that can happen downtown, but you've got to allow mixed use developments downtown on Main Street. If somebody wants to live above their shop downtown, they need to be able to do that and not be breaking some ordinance. I think downtown is going through a transition right now.
HH : From what to what?
JT : You've got a lot of various landowners and shop people that are clearing out for all sorts of different reasons, either their health, or they're moving or they've decided to shut their business down and go do something else. But there are a number of vacant opportunity spots downtown right now.
HH : But their uses are limited by the zoning ordinances and the comprehensive plan?
JT : A little limited. I guess the downtown charette that we did six months or so ago, they need to execute on that, what we established at that charette, and, I think, promote some density down here, particularly on Main Street. I think there will be some good projects that will come along. Downtown is not going to be a retail super-mecca ever, I don't think, but it can be a very cool artistic area where people enjoy coming and shopping.
HH : Does the kind of thing that we're talking about entail a nightlife?
JT : I would hope so. And that goes back to the liquor law. It's probably time to start looking at recalibrating that. What we have now has worked for us up to this point, but the 50 percent food sales (requirement) is going kill a wine and cheese bar or even a nice cocktail lounge or something. And I understand the people that are going to be concerned about having the hole in the wall kind of a bar room.
HH : But that can be regulated, can't it?
JT : There are so many versions of the liquor law now that I've got to believe there's a better one that Buda can figure out that can fit what we need to get accomplished down here better than what we've got now.
HH : Your future is what?
JT : I don’t know. I'm leaving it pretty open now. Politics, I'm just kind of standing by. I don't intend to run for anything, but that isn't to say I would mind serving in some capacity.
HH : Any interest in city management?
JT : No. I think city manager, it's just a no-win situation. The guys and girls who do that, like (Buda City Manager) Robert (Camareno) and others, they're just a different cut because they have very thick skin and the ability to get stuff done through the fog of bureaucracy and politics, and that's a real skill set to be able to do that.
HH : What else needs addressing in Buda?
JT : The fundamentals are here already. Keep fighting the good fight. I think they need to clean up the dumpsite on IH-35. I think it's coming. (Editor's note: The site Trube references is 65 acres on IH-35 across Main Street from the H-E-B. The site was originally dug as a borrowing pit for gravel when the interstate was built going on 50 years ago. Later, the hole was utilized for decades as a private garbage dump and it now contains thousands of acre-feet of municipal solid waste.)
HH : That's a rather expensive project.
JT : Well, they can't pay for it, but the city can sure induce and incentivize a project to pay for it. I don't know how much it would be, but when I was mayor, I looked at it a number of different times. Many bores have been done trying to find stuff. To my knowledge, nothing has ever been found there that was nuclear. But it's unstable soil, so you can't do anything with it. If you have to clear every square foot of dump out of there, I still think it's got to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $20-40 million, which is still a ton of money. But until that is cleaned up and developed property, the gateway of Buda is always going to be marred.
HH : By an empty lot.
JT : Well, barrel sales and all that.
HH : You almost have to get an agreement for a complete tax abatement.
JT : To clean it up, until the cost of the cleanup is paid for. And that's fair. That, to me, is the last kind of significantly blighted or significantly marred part of the overall comp plan for Buda because it's some of the best real estate, locationwise, in the whole city ... You would need an anchor tenant that could gin the kind of taxes, ad valorem and sales, to pull off something like that.
HH : Would it be worthwhile for the city to issue some kind of revenue bonds to clean up that site?
JT : I think the city waits until the right development and the right developer comes along to put up that kind of coin. But when that time comes, the city, hopefully, will see the wisdom of doing that. Everybody I ever worked with in the city would, but we don't know when that will happen. But I think it will happen. It's just a matter of time.
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