The plans for a renovated Old Kyle Road moved forward as the Wimberley City Council offered it’s support to a preliminary design plan presented by the Wimberley Valley Trails Project, which is leading the public input and planning portion of the project for Hays County.
The design calls for Old Kyle Road to become one-way headed into the Wimberley Square with sidewalks and a bike lane as well as the potential for a new cross road extending Oldham Street from Ranch Road 12 to Old Kyle Road.
“I think we can fund some really cool improvements for this area that follow the Wimberley Way that makes sense for our community and what people want to see here that will be very unique for our quality of life,” Hays County Commissioner Lon Shell said.
“I think we’ve come up with something that is really worth taking that deeper dive into and getting into the finer levels of design,” he said.
Shell also cautioned that while the intention is for Old Kyle Road to become one-way in at least some manner, there are still multiple steps that must be taken before any decision is firm.
“The ultimate goal is that it does become oneway, but there are other factors that need to be considered at further design stages,” Shell said. “It will depend on parking and other transportation routes that need to come to fruition.”
The one-way option was one of multiple possibilities proposed by the project team to the public and stakeholders.
“We know that it is an important (road) to a lot of different destinations,” Claudia Arniella, with CD&P, a community outreach firm hired by the county to complete the public portion of the project study, said. “It is home to a lot of beloved small businesses. There are residents who live along this road. There are property owners who have ideas for what they plan to do on the road and there are different cultural destinations like the Wimberley Playhouse, the cemetery and you have it as a through-road that connects many people to Blue Hoel Park. But we also know that it is not in very good condition. It is in need of safety im provement. It is not very accessible for pedestrians, cyclists or folks with limited mobility. It is not ADA accessible. There is an opportunity to improve the beautification of it and create more of a promenade feel that allows people to really be connected to different places.”
The plan, which can be viewed in depth on wimberleyvalleytrails. com, calls for Old Kyle Road to remain a twolane road from FM 3237 to at least a traffic circle at Blue Hole Road. Depending on other potential future projects, it could begin there as a one-way road or continue to be two-lanes until the oak tree that is in the middle of Old Kyle Road. At the tree, traffic could either turn left onto a future Oldham Street extension to Ranch Road 12 or continue on to a one-way road into the Wimberley Square. The one-way road lane would be 12 feet wide with parking spaces on oneside, a bike lane on the other with a few feet of green space and a sidewalk bookending both sides of the road.
“All of the concepts incorporated some key concepts, realigning the roadway, making it safer, making an improved roadway that considered drainage and stormwater capture but also that had continuous sidewalks on both sides that are ADA accessible,” Arniella said. “We also incorporated traffic calming measures, things like signage, safe crossings, way-finding and adding some dark-sky compliant lighting.”
The project would extend the trail that starts on Winter’s Mill Parkway and goes through Blue Hole Regional Park down Old Kyle Road and into the Wimberley Square. Shell said that the whole project would help with traffic congestion as well as having the potential to add additional parking lots, though 17 roadside parking spaces would be lost in the transition.
“I think anything that is done, there are things that also have to be done at the same time,” Shell said. “Planning for parking is one, that is imperative especially if it were to become one way. I think there needs to be parking opportunities off of 3237 somewhere… I think one thing we might see is improvements to congestion if we clean up that intersection (at Ranch Road 12 and Old Kyle Road) and that is something that this provides us an opportunity to clean up… That is one of the secondary benefits. We might see improved flow of traffic if we incorporated Oldham Street and additional parking.”
This is a collaborative project between Hays County and the city of Wimberley that is led by Shell and the Wimberley Valley Trails Project that he created. The Wimberley City Council unanimously approved the one-way design idea at their last meeting in April. This allows the project to move forward towards a 30% preliminary design, which will allow the county to begin seeking funding from multiple sources. This design will take from six to nine months. Shell said the goal in that time frame is to start applying for federal or other funds for the project.
