On Tuesday evening, parents and members of the Lakeway City Council raised concerns about traffic impact in the By Creek Road area due to a planned new elementary school.
The Lake Travis School District is working with the city to find ways to reduce the impact of traffic around the new elementary school. The district plans to open Elementary School No. 8 at 4528 Bee Creek Road on 11 acres of land. The campus is scheduled to open by the 2024-2025 academic year. This is the first of three new schools built since the county’s successful November election.
A number of council members and parents expressed concern about the location of the new elementary school. One parent talked about how close the new elementary school is to other campuses, such as Rough Hollow Elementary School, and how the new school could worsen traffic congestion on By Creek Road.
“Traffic problems that we already have on B Creek Road, how dangerous this road is, what (the area) is already between Rough Hollow and this new proposed elementary school, there is this new large sports complex, I just don’t know how the road handles the added capacity,” the parent said.
Pro Tem Mayor Gretchen Vance expressed the same concerns as the location, with many of the Lake Travis area’s other schools and buildings within “three-quarters of a mile of each other.”
“I’m now a student at Lake Travis High School, and it’s an absolute disservice to companies that are sitting on this road that parents are taking that seat,” Vance said. “They take every parking space and these businesses can’t have customers because it’s so shitty right now.”
Lake Travis school officials will return later to discuss a second reading of the development plan, Mayor Tom Kilgore said, and the city council will task the district to come back with road decisions and a better understanding of the traffic’s predicted impact.
“This board will not vote for you until you come back with some decisions for us,” Kilgore told school district officials. “If we don’t understand traffic and think that this thing will ruin the work, then you have chosen the wrong site.”
