Growth management, infrastructure and road improvements weighed heavy during the Fair Oaks Ranch State of the City address last Thursday.
City staff and officials in Fair Oaks Ranch played host to the event last week, presenting to a sold-out room of city volunteers and roughly 120 residents at the Fair Oaks Ranch Golf & Country Club.
After announcing FOR officer Lacey Gonzalez as the city’s employee of the year, noting she obtained a bachelor’s degree and is working toward a master’s degree while working full time, and honoring several residents who have volunteered repeatedly in the city, FOR Mayor Greg Maxton moved on to the meat and potatoes of the presentation.
“What makes our city unique?” Maxton asked in opening his presentation. “Why do we all want to live in Fair Oaks Ranch? You know is it the Hill Country aesthetics? Is it our natural beauty? The semirural nature that we have in our environment? The parks and trails systems that have been built throughout our community? Our wildlife? This country club, which is centrally located in our city? Or is it the school district? I think it’s all these qualities that make our city great.”
Safety, security
Maxton first addressed safety and security in the city. He said Police Chief Tim Moring “is the right person to be our police chief in FOR.”
Maxton said Moring responds quickly to calls for service, behaves professionally, has successfully worked to integrate FOR officers into the community and led to the city being designated the third safest city in the state.
Noting a police utilization study conducted over the past year, Maxton said Moring indicated the police department staffing is where it needs to be aside from an additional animal services officer.
The mayor noted the several public outreach and education efforts made by Moring and his police force over the past year, including National Night Out, the Santa Parade, Cookies with Santa, the Junior Police Academy, Trunk or Treat and the police department’s efforts to educate the public about golf cart and utility terrain vehicles. Maxton urged residents to further the police department’s efforts by getting information to family and neighbors who live in FOR about speeding and school bus safety.
Maxton credited the FOR Municipal Court, noting Judge Kimberly Keller and her court staff have stayed busy. He said the courts were run by Zoom in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, adding the courts reportedly closed out twice the number of cases they were closing before proceedings moved to the digital platform
Further, Maxton mentioned the Wise Up and Rise Up program started under Keller, where minors are given the opportunity to give back to the community rather than paying fines for moving violations or other municipal charges. Maxton said Keller created the program because she didn’t want parents paying off minors’ fines. When the youth can’t afford their consequences, she assigned them a research paper originally but now community service hours are an option.
Maxton said the program has led to a reduction in recidivism, and some parents have even reported a “turn-around” in their children since going through the program.
Development
When addressing the development boom hitting the Hill Country and Texas in general, Maxton said the city needs to balance growth management in a property-rights state, adding “tools” have been put in place by previous councils that will allow city officials to mitigate this balance.
“What we have is a unique community, and I believe everyone wants to keep it this way,” Maxton said.
He said the updates to the city’s Unified Development Code with zoning definitions and a future land-use map are examples of these “tools” the city can leverage, noting the rock crushing business that quickly was shut down by the city after public outcry from residents was an example of putting these tools into action.
“We know the people are out there,” Maxton said. “We know we’re primary – or a prime target because we are a great city and developers want to build here because my belief is they know they can sell. …
“We want to keep The Ranch, The Ranch.”
Roads
Moving to another key conversation across the Hill Country, Maxton directed the audience’s attention to roads. Maxton said the central message he received after presenting to the Kendall County Boerne Fair Oaks Transportation Committee earlier this year was that local municipalities “need to look to the future” and develop a master throughfare plan between Kendall County, Fair Oaks Ranch and Boerne.
Maxton said the Texas Department of Transportation project to expand Ralph Fair Road has been identified but remains unfunded by the state agency. Because of the lack of funding, Maxton estimated the project may be 10 years or more out. However, a bridge over Cibolo Creek on the state highway has been funded by TxDOT, so Maxton said that project could be completed within two or three years.
Considering the incoming Lemon Creek complex – a live-work development set to hit the Interstate 10 and Dietz Elkhorn Road area that includes several retail sites, apartment units and a new H-E-B – Maxton said the city will look to expand and improve Dietz Elkhorn Road, which he said cannot handle the increased traffic expected in response to the new development.
Drainage
Flowing the conversation toward stormwater drainage in the city, Maxton, holding up two fingers to measure a couple of inches, said there is very little topsoil before solid limestone in the Hill Country. This, he said, leads to a lot of runoff that FOR wasn’t designed to handle with the number of houses it currently encompasses.
He said nine stormwater drainage projects were funded this year, and two new staff positions were created and funded to focus on stormwater drainage. However, he said city staff haven’t been able to fill the two positions because of a lack of unqualified applications.
Water, wastewater
Lastly, Maxton discussed the city’s water and wastewater plans.
Maxton said the city currently is spending $350,000 a year to haul off wet sludge from its wastewater plant. He said a big part of this cost is the lack of space for drying beds to dry off the moisture from waste.
To combat this problem, he said the city is looking to purchase equipment that would remove 95 percent of water from waste immediately, eliminating the need for drying beds at all. This is expected to result in significantly lowered costs for the city’s wastewater management.
Additionally, Maxton noted the FOR City Council approved a contract for a consultant to look at all options for wastewater plant improvements or expansions in the city. The consultants were brought on earlier this year to look into whether the city should construct a second wastewater plant, restore or expand the existing wastewater plant and review any and all options available to the city.
“I have a belief that we need to keep Fair Oaks Ranch the way it is,” Maxton said. “And it’s probably not going to stay exactly the way it is, but it’s keeping those characteristics which keep us unique. And I believe it’s important. It’s the reason that my family and I moved here, and the individuals I talk to, I believe it’s the reason they moved here also. And it’s good people, and it’s a special community. And I think it’s important to maintain all of that.”
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