01.15.19 Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes January 15, 2019 The developer mentioned the traffic load will not be increased, because loop 110 will alleviate all congestion. He reminded Council that the first bond vote approved and appropriated for Loop 110 happened 17 years ago. Norma Parrot, added to her husband's comments and stated they own three homes in the Blanco River Village subdivision. She has lived there for 12 years and before that lived in Austin for 24 years. She provided history of the developer, John Bob Moffitt and his project, the Barton Creek Resort. She provided that it was denied by Council and 900 people showed up to voice their concerns. Two years later it came back, was approved, and considered as the gold standard of water use and conservation. City Governments pointed to this development and said if you build it like this we will approve it. She believe if those 900 citizens did not show up to voice their concerns, this development would not be what it is today, they saved their springs. John Meeks, read the following letter to Council: "Some 120 years ago a very innovative City Council voted to donate 11 acres to the State of Texas on the highest hill in San Marcos. Today, that eleven acres has grown to provide jobs for over 3,600 people with a budget of over $700 million making the University the largest employer between Austin and San Antonio. Without the foresight by that City Council, the University would have never come to San Marcos. The next big opportunity for our City came with World War II when the City Council voted to expand the airfield by purchasing 2,000 acres that would eventually become the San Marcos Regional Airport, the size which is unlike any of a town our size in this State. With the confidence shown by that City Council, the San Marcos Regional Airport and Gary Job Corps, with over 500 employees on the payroll, would not have happened. There was much controversy in the 1980s about giving the Outlet Mall Developer a tax rebate incentive. There were scare tactics voiced in this very chamber that the Outlet Mall would suck all the water from our pipes, and the sewer plants would overflow fetid waste and garbage into our river. From this very platform it was warned that within five years the outlet mall would be a blighted ghetto as opposed to the asset that was transformed from ag exempt farm land to premier retail space and since its construction it has pain tens of millions of dollars of taxes to our City, County, and schools. Without the brave leadership of that City Council, the outlet mall would have never come to San Marcos. City of San Marcos Page 7