PROPOSITION B MISSION HILL PARK
PROPOSITION C LIBRARY FACILITIES
PROJECT COST: $12.15M
PROJECT COST: $28.56M
Proposition B would fund the second phase of Mission Hill Park. Once completed, it will be the rst public park for residents west of Loop 337 and plans to provide environmental education opportunities. Projects consist of:
Proposition C would fund a new Southeast Library Branch located in Guadalupe County with a focus on youth and family and would serve the six schools within walking distance. Projects consist of:
Soft and hard surface trails with trailhead Outdoor classroom Multilevel observation tower
Parking, restrooms and event space Picnic areas Canopy walk with access to observation tower decks
23,250-square-foot library Quiet study rooms
Meeting rooms Public plaza and garden space
SETTLERS CROSSING
INDEPENDENCE DR.
46
337
N
N
“I’ve watched the community grow, and I have seen the impact that the library can make in the commu- nity,” New Braunfels Library Director Gretchen Pruett said. “And one of our biggest challenges in the town is managing the growth and trying to provide the same level of services to every single person in the city, and with the library what we found is that as the city grows and tra£c becomes worse, not everybody is able to get to the library when they need it.” According to Pruett, the national standard cities try to meet to ensure the library size meets the needs of the community is to allocate 0.6 square feet of library space to each resident. By combining the square footage of the main library branch with the Westside and Southeast branches, the city will have 68,000 square feet of library space throughout the city, which is just enough to keep up with the growing community. “Right now, every book that comes in, one has to leave,” Pruett said. “We don’t have the capacity to have more books, and while the Westside Branch
will help, it’s not enough additional shelving to really change that, and [library sta] don’t like that.” The Southeast Library Branch will have a youth and family focus to serve the six schools that are within walking distance. The facility will feature quiet study rooms, technol- ogy spaces, meeting rooms, and a public plaza and garden space. The new branch would also be dedicated to providing quality after- school programs with four individ- ual spaces for child care activities included in the design. According to the Library Master Plan, the con- struction timeline for the Southeast Branch would be 24 months once the project breaks ground. “We know that library services are important for families, and so we were seeing the part of town that had the most families and was the fastest growing; it was the southeast quad- rant of New Braunfels,” Pruett said.
allocate over $12 million to complet- ing the second phase of Mission Hill Park. The 10-acre park will be located on Independence Drive o Hwy. 46 in New Braunfels. “The community has worked hard to get the initial trail and some park- ing there now, and let’s go ahead and ¨nish this out so that it can be a type of show place the entire community can enjoy,” Brockman said. The bond funding would go toward the construction of a multi- level observation tower with a can- opy walk that allows for access to observation tower decks. Improve- ments would be made to parking and restrooms, and an event space would be constructed. “Because the EDC is going to be so gracious with their funding for several parks projects, it gave [City Council] the opportunity to be able to complete a project that has gotten started with the roadway up to it,” Brockman said. Both soft and hard surface trails
with trailheads would also be con- structed. Mission Hill Park would be the ¨rst public park for residents west of Loop 337, providing historic and environmental education oppor- tunities. The park got its name from a Spanish mission in the area from the mid-1700s and is the highest point in New Braunfels, according to the Sophienburg Museum and Archives. “I think the meaningful part [of Mission Hill] park is the history and how impactful that has been on the community of New Braunfels for almost the entire history of the town,” Brockman said. Expanding library accessibility A new 23,000-square-foot South- east Library Branch will be con- structed in New Braunfels on the corner of South Walnut Avenue and Settlers Crossing if voters pass Prop- osition C on the May ballot. The $28 million new library facility would provide library services to a growing part of the city.
For more information, visit communityimpact.com .
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NEW BRAUNFELS EDITION • MARCH 2023
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