New Braunfels Edition | May 2022

ADDING PROPERTY

FINANCING THE FIRST PHASE New Braunfels City Council approved the use of sales tax funds to be allocated from the New Braunfels Economic Development Corp. for the purchase of the land and initial design for a new rail yard facility.

private sector so the private sector can bring in the bulk of the money for redevelopment of the site, whatever that ends up looking like,” he said. Community input As the deal with Union Pacic Rail- road moves forward and pushes the vision plan forward, many residents agree that removing the rail yard from downtown will be a benet to the city. “The potential for investment and economic impact there is con- siderable,” said Chris Snider, whose family owns several area businesses, including Krause’s Cafe on South Castell Avenue. Because the rail yard and sur- rounding properties owned by the

The city of New Braunfels owns several properties surrounding the Union Pacic rail yard. Once the purchase is nalized, city ocials hope it will be developed.

The city owns 9.494 ACRES IN THE AREA

WHAT IS THE NEW BRAUNFELS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORP.?

The organization receives $0.00375 of sales tax revenue collected in the city to support community and economic development projects. PREDEVELOPMENT AND PRELIMINARY ENGINEERING AGREEMENT FUNDING $1.5 million to purchase land $409,315.50 for initial feasibility and design work $200,000 for title and survey work $75,000 in additional costs for due diligence

The Union Pacic site on Hill Avenue is 3.62 ACRES

city are relatively undevel- oped and, Snider said future building projects have the potential to serve various community needs. “Cleaning up the prop-

TOTAL $2,184,315.50

MAP NOT TO SCALE N

SOURCES: CITY OF NEW BRAUNFELS, COMAL COUNTY APPRAISAL DISTRICTCOMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER

surrounding the New Braunfels Civic and Convention Center, including the Union Pacic property. “We want to acquire that prop- erty so that we can redevelop that site in the downtown area [and] con- tinue to invest in our downtown,” New Braunfels City Manager Robert Camareno said during the April 11 council meeting. “This is one of sev- eral puzzles that had to fall into place in order for us to be able to implement the South Castell vision.” Douglas Architects was contracted to study and analyze potential ways the area could be redeveloped and collaborated with area stakeholders to outline a framework for the type of developments that would be the most benecial for the city. Community members met over the course of six public meetings to share their input regarding the redevelop- ment plan, Douglas Architects Presi- dent Andrew Douglas said.

erty [is] the obvious rst step, but downtown has some needs that have been identied, such as improved alternative pedestrian access, green space [and] parking,” he said. “There can be signicant impact for the better on really the entirety of downtown because they’re gonna have great connectivity.” However, some residents have raised concerns that high-density development in the area could add to trac or substantially change the appearance of downtown. “It’s in the wrong spot to do this sort of scale,” said David Warmke, a resident who participated in many of the public meetings during the creation of the South Castell Avenue Vision Plan. “It needs to be devel- oped, but it needs to be developed low density, and I think it needs to be sold. … You get a good developer that you trust and then turn them loose with constraints as opposed to this

Each of the options presented in the nal plan incorporate residential, retail, civic, hotel and parking compo- nents at varying densities, he said. “In the end, the vision plan wasn’t a master plan,” Douglas said. “The goal here was to tee this up and make it attractive to the developer commu- nity and [include] the input of the citi- zens of New Braunfels, the city, all the major stakeholders in New Braunfels, so that they would understand where the community’s head’s at, what they’re looking for [and] what they would like to see happen.” Establishing a development frame- work, evaluating the site’s economic potential and working to relocate Union Pacic Railroad’s fueling facil- ity helps to make the property more appealing to developers while allow- ing the city to set guidelines for what would be most desirable in the down- town area, Jewell said. “We’re trying to reduce risk for the

SOURCE: CITY OF NEW BRAUNFELS COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER

partnership thing where we’re direct- ing what we want.” Ocials said the goal of any rede- velopment downtown is to meet the needs of a growing community with- out detracting from its character. “The South Castell Area Master Plan was to establish basically an overall development vision for what that property should ultimately be,” Jewell said. “It should be catalytic; it should be based in market realities; it should oer something to visitors and residents alike.”

For more information, visit communityimpact.com .

NEW BRAUNFELS EDITION • MAY 2022