PUBLISHED APRIL 12
By Basil Gist Staff Writer
The school board and city council of Aubrey met April 3 to update one another on current project and field specific topics regarding continued growth and how to manage it.
A chief topic after project overviews was insight from the city regarding a tract of land inside Aubrey city limits but serviced by Pilot Point ISD.
“I would like to push you guys to have that conversation with Pilot Point ISD,” Mayor Chris Rich said. “If that boundary ever moves, now’s the time to do it while there’s just ranches there. When the first development goes in and they build a bunch of houses, that’s off the table.”
Board President Jim Milacek said the board had assumed PPISD would not entertain the discussion.
“If you never ask, they’ll never have the opportunity to say yes,” Rich said. “It’s a tough ask because it’s all them giving to us.”
Milacek said the northern district would almost certainly want something in return.
“There is a confusing area up there,” Rich said. “We have a developer looking at building in that zone right now, so if they start, it’s done. Pilot Point will never let it go when there’s 700 homes.”
Other chief topics after the project overviews became traffic management for the city and development forewarning for the school district.
“We’ve talked about some of these at previous meetings, one of those being Pine Ridge,” Rich said. “There is commercial going in on both sides. Anytime we talk about taking the next step where the city takes over Pine Ridge, we’d lose the gate completely.”
Council member Jeff Perry weighed in as well, saying the roadway leading into Pine Ridge from U.S. 377 should be a right turn only lane, at least during peak traffic hours.
“We’ve talked about Pine Ridge numerous times in the past,” Rich said. “I’d like to see us come up with an actual plan. Either you all should say it’s off the table, or we should go ahead and do it.”
Aubrey ISD police chief Kevin Clayton explained the key use the district has for the gates along that road are to maintain a point of ingress for emergency vehicles during athletic events.
City Manager Charles Kreidler also fielded the idea of a rear outlet from the high school onto Highmeadow Road to mitigate traffic flowing out from the school and High Pointe.
“We aren’t able to connect to Highmeadow right now, it stops at the apartments,” Superintendent Shannon Saylor said.
Kreidler said the area has the potential for development, being zoned multifamily at present, and could facilitate a roadway in the future.
On the district’s side, members of the board inquired as to how the city could help AISD attain further school sites to help them keep up with the abundant growth.
“Do those conversations ever happen in ya’ll’s development meetings?” board member Benton Bland asked. “Does the school district ever get brought in; any thought as to us trying to keep up with development?”
Rich explained every development above 50 houses is required to meet with the district about land donation.
There have been no new developers, Rich said, since Aubrey Superintendent Dr. Shannon Saylor took her position, so she was unaware of it.
“Most of what we’re dealing with right now are legacy development agreements that were before my time,” Kreidler said. 'It just takes that long to get it done. We've got a couple of major agreements coming that will be the first we’ve had, and they’ll have to produce that letter before the council will even consider.”
