Save Darden Hill Rd

Commissioner Walt Smith

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 2024 road bond was voided by a judge for violating the Texas Open Meetings Act, 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.
Petition by
Matt Walters
Matt Walters
Driftwood, Texas

To: Commissioner Walt Smith
From: [Your Name]

Hays County's Improve 150 program calls for widening Darden Hill Road from a rural two-lane road to a four-lane divided highway with a median, shoulders, bike lanes, and a 45 mph speed limit. A planned future extension would complete the corridor,
creating a continuous high-speed route from RM 1826 through to RM 12 via FM 150 — a regional connection built directly through a residential community with three school campuses.

Whether this road ends up with two lanes or four, it must be designed for the community that lives on it — not as a 45 mph freight corridor past three schools. The county changed the plan from two lanes to four without coming back to the community that
spent three years telling them what we needed. At minimum, these conditions must be met:

1. Complete a traffic noise study before advancing the design

TxDOT's own noise analysis for the connecting RM 1826 corridor found traffic noise impacts at residential locations, with predicted levels exceeding the federal 67 dB(A) threshold — and determined that noise barriers are not cost-effective. Darden Hill
is a quieter road where the relative impact would be greater.

2. Set the speed limit at 35 mph

Three DSISD campuses sit on or adjacent to this road — Cypress Springs Elementary, the planned new high school, and Sycamore Springs Middle School. 45 mph next to children on bicycles and teenagers learning to drive is indefensible.

3. Establish a truck weight limit

Heavy freight has no place on a road where children bicycle to school. The community raised this concern in 2016: "Do not want to encourage commercial truck traffic on Darden Hill Rd."

4. Reduce to two lanes with turn lanes at intersections

The county's own 2017 Character Plan — the only design developed with meaningful community input — specified two lanes throughout the corridor.

5. Remove the planned future extension

The community rejected a similar bypass concept in 2015 with a 322-signature petition that forced the county to remove it from the plan.

6. Engage the community before finalizing a design we never approved

The 2017 Character Plan involved 530+ attendees, 450+ comments, and 18 advisory panel meetings over three years — all resulting in a two-lane recommendation. The shift to four lanes happened without a comparable process.

From the county's own planning documents

The 2013 Hays County Transportation Plan recommended only the addition of a center turn lane — not a four-lane expansion. The 2017 RM 150 West Character Plan, accepted by the Commissioners Court on October 10, 2017, specified two-lane configurations
throughout the entire corridor. Not one cross-section in the 72-page plan proposes four lanes.

The 2024 Hays County road bond was voided by a judge in 2025 for violating the Texas Open Meetings Act. The county then approved up to $240M in Certificates of Obligation — public debt that does not require voter approval — to continue advancing these
projects.

We are not opposed to road improvements. We are asking the county to prove this plan won't harm us before building it — and to design a road that serves the families who live here.