Fair Oaks Ranch Mayor Greg Maxton gave a long-awaited presentation to the countywide Kendall County, Boerne and Fair Oaks Transportation Committee Tuesday, where he said FOR supports the development of a regional thoroughfare plan, proposed transportation solutions and addressed the development he expects to hit the Hill Country.
Maxton addressed some of the development set to hit the FOR borders, including the Lemon Creek live-work-play development with an H-E-B going in at Interstate 10 and Dietz-Elkhorn Road, the Lily Ranch Development planned for Old Fredericksburg Road and another apartment complex set to go up along the I-10 access road. While Maxton said he wasn’t a fan of development nor is he promoting it, he acknowledged it’s continuing to happen.
Maxton said these developments likely will spur additional development, saying the Lemon Creek amenities and retail shops likely will encourage developers to build near the shopping center – which he compared to a smaller-scale version of the shops at The RIM.
While he said most people who live in FOR likely would oppose development, Maxton said Texas is a property rights state so there’s little that can be done to stop it. However, Maxton said there is a struggle when addressing throughfares and roadways because there is concern that putting in roadways may accelerate development that’s bound to hit a given area anyway.
Maxton said the first goal in transportation planning in FOR is to meet the needs of the community, which includes maintaining the Hill Country appeal of the semi-rural city or considering environmental impacts of road development. Then, he said FOR staff and officials are focused on moving traffic efficiently and ensuring new roads or road improvements include multimodal transportation.
Maxton said FOR has a community of people who want to get out and walk and bike. He said FOR staff and officials certainly want to see those additions in FOR, but he said there might be an opportunity to continue that multimodal transportation where FOR connects with Kendall County and even Boerne.
Maxton addressed several projects FOR would like to see both inside its city limits and outside in Kendall County. First, Maxton addressed the Texas Department of Transportation’s plans to expand Ralph Fair Road or Farm-to-Market 3351.
While the major expansion of FM 3351 has yet to be funded, which Maxton said he has heard anywhere from a four-lane to a sixlane expansion in the works, he said TxDOT has funded a project to raise a bridge that crosses the Cibolo Creek along FM 3351 in FOR. He said the bridge project is expected to be completed in two to three years. Maxton said FOR staff and officials would like to work with TxDOT to influence what the expansion of FM 3351 looks like in the city.
Maxton received some pushback from Kendall County resident Wanda McCarthy after he suggested straightening out Ammann Road as it connects Highway 46 and FM 3351. There are two 90-degree turns along the road connecting the two state highways, and Maxton said there is a residential road that people use to cut through to FM 3351. Maxton estimated the trip saves drivers about two minutes by using a smaller, residential road as a cut through.
McCarthy, who owns about 47 acres along Ammann Road, said it didn’t seem fair to push a problem out of FOR onto those in an unincorporated area of Kendall County by raising the connector road out of FOR. McCarthy took issue with creating a “speed track” on Ammann for the high-schoolers she said are going back and forth between FOR and Boerne.
While it lays outside the city, Maxton expressed interest in creating another connection to Interstate 10 from Highway 46 north east of FOR in Kendall County. However, transportation committee member Bitsy Pratt pointed out a conflict of having a highly desirable transportation outcomes right next to environmentally sensitive areas, asking Maxton what a second solution might be since the area he sought for a new connector is a highly karst area.
Pratt said these conflicting interests are part of what the transportation committee has been challenging, balancing the idea of meeting environmental concerns with transportation needs and valuing landowners’ rights.
Committee Cochair Don Durden said the problem with FM 3351 wasn’t the expansion, saying it likely could be done in a way FOR residents could live with, but he said increasing traffic on FM 3351 will lead to further strain on its intersection with I-10. Short of having a flyover intersection at FM 3351 and I-10, Durden said about all has been done that could be to mitigate traffic issues at the intersection. Committee member Jonah Evans suggested looking at node alternatives like a double-diamond exchange to buy some time between now and a larger scale project.
Calling back to the pushback from Pratt on another Highway 46 connection to I-10, Evans also said even if the county and cities opt to stay hands off in karst areas, he said developers are building houses and neighborhood roads over all of those areas anyway. So, Evans said implementing a thoroughfare planning process that guided a pathway through those areas with minimal eminent domain shouldn’t be off the table. Said the realization that these areas are being developed regardless of any thoroughfare plans in the area gave him pause.
Durden said the transportation committee expects to meet through midyear, estimating a June endgame, but this date has moved several times. The committee hosts regular meetings the first and third Tuesday of each month at 2 p.m. at Boerne City Hall.
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