Message From Mike Murphy
Bee Cave City Council; Bee Cave Economic Development Board VP
Uplands & Falconhead Neighbors, 8/26/2007
1) TxDoT finally finished the traffic lights on the bypass road linking Bee Caves Rd to RR 620. At a little before 3 p.m. on Friday, the road was opened to traffic. Only NINE months behind schedule. Now, if we can get TxDoT to complete the Hwy 71 improvements before the Galleria opens on October 26th, it will only be NINE months late. Both projects are financed by Opus West, the Galleria prime contractor, at no expense to Bee Cave or TxDoT as part of the overall development agreement for the Galleria project. Go see the road for yourselves. It starts on Bee Caves at the Goodyear Tire Dealer and intersects RR620 near Target. Looks like a good Uplands to High School/Middle School route, and a must for everyone in Falconhead who needs to get to Bee Caves Road or back.
2) Despite the best efforts of the City, The Mayor (Caroline Murphy), Our Uplands HOA President (Stephen England), The Falconhead HOA President (Robert Dorsett), the two Lake Pointe MUD Presidents, State Senator Kirk Watson, and others, the LCRA Board unanimously approved a three-stage, 70% water rate increase. The increases will occur in steps on October 1st of 07, 08 & 09. Combined with the increases imposed in 2002, your water bill will be 70% higher than today and about 150% higher than in 2002. Bee Cave will appeal the rate increase to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) that oversees LCRA rates. I do not expect this effort to grant us rate relief. I guess it may be time to redesign my landscaping or drill a well.
3) You may have seen the Austin American Statesman article on the delayed opening of the Galleria two seeks ago. The author opined how Bee Cave would have to wait longer to see a return on its investment in the project. Bee Cave fronted $0 for the project, but we have already received the Galleria Parkway ($6M?), the funding of the Hwy 71 widening ($7+M), 50 acres for our park off RR 620 (value ?), $2.5M in cash, and $3.5M to be paid toward the new City Hall construction. It is the developer, not Bee Cave, who waits as we only rebate a percentage of the sales tax the project actually generates.
4) Design plans for the Bee Cave Central Park are nearing completion. Construction should begin next year. Located between Target and McCoys behind the frontage businesses on RR620.
5) Hamilton Pool Road extension. We are working on obtaining right-of-way agreements with various land owners to bring Hamilton Pool Road from Highway 71 up to the RR 620 / Galleria Parkway intersection. This project will be financed by the Bee Cave Economic Develpopment Board using the 1/4 cent sales tax designated for such development projects. The east end of the project connecting to the Galleria Parkway will also provide the main entrance to the Central Park. The road will provide a second access to the LaDera Ranch project to be built south of Falconhead and behind the Home Depot tract. It is possible this road will be built in phases. Phase 1 would be the east end to give access to the Park as the city owns the land required on that end.
6) Land prices in Bee Cave are staggering. Frontage on RR 620 tops $400K per acre. The high cost of buildable land in Bee Cave is driving the desire by developers to build more dense, condo/apartment projects rather than single family homes. The Galleria is pulling in virtually all the new retail activity in the area and is stopping other retail projects from proceeding.
Mike Murphy (Captmurf@aol.com)
Bee Cave City Council; Bee Cave Economic Development Board VP
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