{
"type": "rich",
"version": "1.0",
"provider_name": "Action Network",
"provider_url": "https://actionnetwork.org",
"html": "",
"author_name": "Matt Walters",
"author_url": "https://actionnetwork.org/users/matt-walters/profile",
"title": "Save Darden Hill Rd",
"thumbnail_url": "https://actionnetwork.org//images/generic_facebook.jpg",
"description": "Hays County is building a highway through our neighborhood — and calling it a road improvement. The county's plan puts 45 mph freight and commuter bypass traffic directly alongside new elementary school bicycle routes on Darden Hill Road. That is not a design conflict that can be engineered away. It is a fundamental choice: build for the trucks, or build for the children. The county chose the trucks. Residents of Darden Hill Road were never given a meaningful voice in this decision. The county's own 2013 Transportation Plan recommended only a center turn lane. The 2017 Character Plan — developed with a county-appointed Citizens Advisory Panel — specified two-lane configurations and documented residents' clear preference: "Keep it just like it is — 2 lane undeveloped is rural, and that's the attraction." The county collected that input, documented it, and then disregarded it entirely — advancing a four-lane divided highway that contradicts every planning study it commissioned. When the Save Our Springs Alliance successfully challenged the bond funding for this project in court, the county bypassed the ruling by shifting to Certificates of Obligation — public debt that requires no voter approval. Our homes are our largest financial investments. We purchased them on a two-lane rural road in the Hill Country. A four-lane, 45 mph highway corridor will permanently degrade the safety, quiet, and property values that define this community. We are not opposed to road improvements. We are asking for the two-lane design the county's own studies recommended — one that serves the families who live here, not the through-traffic that doesn't.",
"url": "https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/save-darden-hill-rd"
}