Members of the countywide transportation committee chimed in after a mere handful of residents, including city and county officials, showed up for the metropolitan planning organization meeting last week.
Bobby Balli, a member of the Kendall County, Boerne and Fair Oaks Transportation Committee, noted Kendall County likely could be swallowed up by the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization in the upcoming years, weighing the pros and cons of the potential annexation.
“It’s (AAMPO) just another form of bureaucracy in my opinion,” Balli said, who was one of two transportation committee members present. “Only my opinion. I can’t speak for Ben (Eldredge) or all of y’all (the committee), but it’s strength in numbers. You know, you have a bigger platform of folks going for funding. So, you wait your turn. You lobby. You ask, and you put your numbers up there, and you start asking from the beginning. And you may not get it next year, but you can get it the next year or the following.”
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.
Balli said he was concerned that Kendall County had only one representative on the AAMPO planning committee, while Comal and Guadalupe counties had two and Bexar – under standably as the largest entity in the organization – has numerous. He noted that should the MPO take on more or all the county, Kendall County’s number of representatives would likely increase.
Christina Bergmann, Kendall County Precinct 1 commissioner, was appointed by the Boerne City Council to represent the city and county on the AAMPO transportation committee.
Committee member Ben Eldredge, who was also present at the AAMPO meeting last week, questioned why future technology like a highspeed rail or hyperloop system along the Interstate 35 corridor, which were very popular in public surveys, weren’t happening.
Eldredge expressed concern the Texas Department of Transportation was doubling or even tripling down on interstate and highway expansions – citing the 26-lane Katy Freeway as an example – rather than embracing alternative solutions. AAMPO seemed to favor embracing future technology and alternative solutions, but Eldredge speculated the state agencies are favoring old methods.
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