Unit 3: Post 18 (April 5, 2009)

Okey dokey...this is totally late. It completely slipped my mind that we were supposed to post the rough draft here as well as on DocSharing. My bad, here it is.

Letter to the Editor: “The Future of Hwy 29”

This article was posted on August 08, 2008 in the Community Impact Newspaper servicing Georgetown, Hutto, and Taylor and was written by Beth Wade. The title of it is “The future of Hwy 29” and it talks about the proposed expansion of Highway 29 in Georgetown and other neighboring cities. It also discussed the subdivisions that are currently on Highway 29 and those that are proposed to be built along it; a total of 19,005 lots.

I live in Cimarron Hills which is a private neighborhood whose beautiful landscaped entrance is right on Highway 29. Part of the neighborhood is in Georgetown and part is in Liberty Hill. Therefore, we hold stakes in both cities and what affects them. This proposed expansion has the capacity to force us to change the layout of the subdivision. If they expand the existing highway, it will cut off the entrance and some of the golf course. If they decide to build the road as a loop around it, it still will impact the back portion of the subdivision and the houses and lots that are located there. The increased highway will decrease our property values and make it hard to keep the neighborhood as private and exclusive as it has been. It interferes with the very vision of Cimarron Hills, my home, and the beautiful Hill Country around us.

Ms. Wade’s article has multiple strengths and weaknesses in my opinion. The article was fairly straightforward and clearly expressed a majority of the facts in this controversy. I do like the use of the charts to attempt to ‘show’ what the expansion will look like; the only downside is that it doesn’t explain what is happening in the chart and not all of the major subdivision are outlined on the map. For example, they are missing Cimarron Hills on one of the maps which is a particular concern for me as I live there and would really like to know how the subdivision will be affected by the expansion. One of the maps, the alternative option, showed that Cimarron Hills might not be affected by it; it looked as though the road would expand more on the opposite side of the highway. The other map, the one designating the Northwest and Southwest options, shows where the residential land is but doesn’t label the various neighborhoods. I cannot tell how my home will be affected. This is also one of its main weaknesses.

Another main weakness is that it doesn’t totally address how the concept of eminent domain will affect the subdivisions and businesses that border Hwy 29. It would be nice to have a better idea of how the landowners will be affected. Many of them have had land on Hwy 29 for generations. A great many ranches also border Hwy 29 and a loss of land could seriously impact their very livelihood. Also, how the proposed expansion will impact the environment around Hwy 29 which is primarily rural and beautiful country right now. It seems that some of the comments left about the article point out errors in the logic and facts that were presented in the article. One of the facts that is in error is the statement that there hasn’t been a corridor-expansion study done prior. According to Robert McCleskey, there was a study done and published on September 21, 1999. Another fact that was pointed out as being less-than-accurate was pointed out by Debbie. She states that the information concerning the subdivisions is very misleading as some of the neighborhoods listed aren’t located in the area in question. These inaccurate facts really concern me. What else are they wrong on?

I feel that the author in this doesn’t really take a particular stance on the topic. She seems more of an impartial presenter of the facts. However, based on those facts, my statement is that the proposed plan for the expansion of Hwy 29 is an asinine idea that will ruin the whole feel and appeal of the Hill Country and the small-town vision of both Georgetown and Liberty Hill.