The Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization played host to a meeting at Kronkosky Place on Monday, and the growth hitting the Hill Country may lead to the organization reaching further into the “rural” areas of the county.
During the relatively short meeting, which was to present the organization’s Mobility 2050 and 2023-26 transportation improvement plans, AAMPO Director Sid Martinez noted Kendall County is expected to reach a population of 157,844 by 2050. According to AAMPO projections, the San Antonio-Austin region is projected to become another Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex during the next 30 years.
“As the region grows together, we’re going to need to find ways to move people throughout that I-35 corridor,” Martinez said. “If we’re going to find a way to reduce congestion in the future, especially as our population continues to grow, we need to make sure people understand the alternatives they have as they continue to drive from home to work every day.”
With Kendall County’s population projected to increase by 198 percent in the next 30 years, it was identified as the fastest-growing county in the AAMPO boundary. Comal – another rapidly growing Hill Country county – is expected to grow 164 percent by 2050, Guadalupe County is expected to grow 107 percent and Bexar County is expected to see a 60 percent increase in population. In all, AAMPO is predicting 1,788,888 new residents within its borders during the next 30 years.
With the continued growth, Martinez said the urbanized area that makes up the AAMPO boundaries likely will expand north past Boerne into northern Kendall County, adding that the urbanized area also likely will expand west into Medina County. Martinez said the boundaries are reviewed every couple years, and Kendall County residents can expect to see the urban line encroach further and further into the county.
Kendall County currently is a unique position as one portion of the county – Boerne – is incorporated into the more urban AAMPO area while the rest of the county is part of a multicounty rural planning organization called the Alamo Regional Rural Planning Organization. AAMPO encompasses Bexar, Comal, Kendall and Guadalupe counties.
Metropolitan planning organizations are created at the federal level to “provide local direction for urban transportation planning and the allocation of federal transportation funds to cities with populations greater than 50,000,” according to the AAMPO website. Rural planning organizations, on the other hand, are reserved for counties or municipalities with a population less than 50,000 and are not required. Both types of planning organizations are intended to connect municipalities with federal dollars for transportation projects and to form unified, longrange and short-range mobility plans.
While Martinez’s presentation was light on information about projects in Boerne, he said AAMPO is planning to install public transit stations in Boerne, Seguin and New Braunfels. Eventually, if the cities can support a bus system with enough demand, the idea is there will be a VIA bus connection between Boerne and San Antonio.
The mobility planning document projects a transit station will be built in Boerne by 2032. This is the only project in Boerne identified in the Mobility 2050 project list, but more will likely come as the plan is developed.
Public transit has been discussed at several meetings of the Kendall County, Boerne and Fair Oaks Transportation Committee, where it was noted a public transit system had been attempted in Boerne in the past. However, committee members like John Kight, who has been helping with transportation planning in the city for decades, suggested there was no interest in public transpiration from residents. Kight said a previous attempt at public transit didn’t garner enough rides from residents to continue.
Boerne and Kendall County currently have one representative on the Transportation Policy Board, which was a point countywide transportation committee member Bobby Balli noted. Martinez said board representation is based on population density within the AAMPO region, leaving Bexar County with the highest number of representatives.
Kendall County Precinct 1 Commissioner Christina Bergmann was appointed by the Boerne City Council to represent the city and county.
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