Planning commission recommends Padre Mustang Island mobility plan with ISAC amendments

The City Planning Commission voted to recommend adoption of the Padre Mustang Island Mobility Plan, with amendments from the Island Strategic Action Committee (ISAC) and additional planning-commission recommendations, following a staff presentation and public comment.

Planner Karen Costanza of the planning and community development department described the plan as a mobility element that grew from the island area development plan and was funded through a TERS project launched in 2023. Costanza told the commission the plan “focus[es] on connectivity for pedestrians, people riding bikes, people using their golf carts to get around as well as vehicles and also watercraft” and lays out short-, mid- and long-term recommendations for TxDOT-owned corridors, city beach connectors, county beach connectors and local residential connectors.

The plan’s core TxDOT recommendations include a 15-mile-per-hour shared-use path on the south side of Highway 361 between Park Road 22 and the Lake Padre entrance to serve bicycles and golf carts, plus separate sidewalks for pedestrians. For Park Road 22 the draft calls for two-way golf-cart-and-bicycle paths on both sides (14 feet total: two 7-foot lanes, one each direction), plus an 8-foot sidewalk on each side and landscape buffers adjacent to businesses. The document also includes preliminary engineering and load analysis for the Water Exchange/Don Patricio bridge to assess where side-paths could be added.

ISAC recommended additions emphasized greenscape and drainage fixes on Park Road 22 and asked staff to revisit a prior recommendation that would have converted one travel lane on Whitecap Boulevard West and Sea Pines to bike/golf-cart use. The commission added two planning-commission clarifications to the recommendation forwarded to council: to consider Park Road 22 road configuration so that school pickup/drop-off stacking is accommodated, and to “give preference to native plants and oak trees” in landscape areas.

Commission discussion addressed feasibility and staging. Costanza said many interim measures could be implemented during routine restriping and the city’s rapid pavement program so full reconstruction is not required for early benefits. She noted some short-term projects (1–5 years) already have funding pathways: Sand Dollar and Crow’s Nest are paper streets with $7,200,000 programmed for construction in the near term, and a segment of Park Road 22 from Aquarius to Whitecap already appears in the metropolitan planning organization’s 10-year program. Costanza cautioned that some corridor items, especially those on TxDOT right of way such as the JFK Causeway approaches, will require TxDOT partnership.

Speakers raised design details: commissioners asked whether the proposed 45-mph reduction from 55 mph on Park Road 22 should be lower, whether the 14-foot two-way width is adequate (Costanza said the design standards call for a preferred 7-foot golf-cart lane and a 5-foot bike lane per direction), and how landscaping would be irrigated in a drought-prone environment. Costanza said native plantings and modern establishment techniques can limit water needs and that “if it’s a priority, it can happen.” Craig Thompson, vice chair of ISAC, said the committee “appreciate[d]” staff work and called the draft “an outstanding job.”

The planning commission’s motion recommends that city council adopt the mobility plan as an element of the city’s comprehensive plan and forward ISAC’s recommended language plus the planning-commission additions on school stacking and native landscaping. The commission’s recommendation will be presented next to the TERS board for briefing and then returned to the city council for public hearing and two readings of an adopting ordinance.

The plan document, including an implementation appendix and engineering appendices, is part of the meeting packet and is available digitally in the city’s agenda materials. Further engineering design, grant or bond funding, TxDOT agreements and MPO programming will determine the timeline for each component.