Council directs staff to include River Legacy repairs and confirm bond categories; Randall Mill rebuild options debated

City staff asked the council on Jan. 7 to confirm project categories and amounts for the proposed 2025 bond election and to advise whether to add the River Legacy Nature Center work to the package. Lemuel (staff) presented two River Legacy options: a targeted $220,000 package addressing surgical repairs and an expanded $2.8 million package to fully address identified facility needs.

Council discussion favored the larger $2.8 million option. Council Member Gonzales and Council Member Hunter said the Nature Center has critical structural needs and urged inclusion of the $2.8 million package so high-priority repairs could be addressed early; Council Member Hogg also supported the $2.8 million option. One member suggested $2 million as a compromise to round the bond to $200 million, but the consensus among several members including the mayor was to include the $2.8 million amount.

Staff also presented options for Randall Mill Road between Cooper and Fielder, including a 5-lane rebuild (continuous center turn lane), a 4-lane rebuild divided by a median and a 4-lane rebuild undivided. Public Works staff said the 5-lane design was proposed to reduce rear-end and turning collisions on a corridor identified as part of the high-injury network; the 4-lane option would save roughly $11 million but provide fewer safety improvements. Council members debated the trade-offs between safety and cost, pedestrian concerns and burying utility lines (staff estimated undergrounding at least 20% higher than a previous $1 million-per-mile figure from 2012).

At the end of the discussion, staff summarized the proposed bond categories and amounts that would be presented to the public and asked council to confirm those category totals so staff can prepare proposition language for the Jan. 28 meeting and final readings in early February; staff said the public-works street category total would remain $136,995,000 (which includes the Randall Mill allocation). Staff indicated they would document the categories and the full project list for the Jan. 28 agenda and the Feb. 4 deadline to call the election.