Lubbock Metropolitan Planning Organization’s ten year transportation plan for fiscal years 2019 through 2029. Image obtained from Wood Franklin.
By Reece Nations, Managing Editor
Surrounded by what was once innocuous farmland, Lubbock’s Milwaukee Avenue is now a bastion of local commerce. Development in this region was spurred by the Gateway Street Projects Fund, which was first implemented by the Lubbock City Council in February 2004.
The fund, conceived by former council member Tom Martin, designated around 40 percent of franchise fees collected from utility companies to use public right-of-way to develop roads that lead into Lubbock, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. In order to use the city’s alleyways, companies like Suddenlink, South Plains Electric Cooperative and Lubbock Power & Light must pay the city a five-percent franchise fee.
Prior to the gateway fund’s establishment, all the capital from these fees was allotted to the city’s general fund for street projects, Wood Franklin, public works director for the City of Lubbock, said. While the general fund is still active, it is usually reserved for road maintenance projects and not developing new routes into the city.
“When the gateway fund was started, bonds were taken out on the street to get the projects done,” Franklin said. “So, they did issue bonds in the (fund) — this (roughly) 40 percent franchise fee is being used to pay back the debt service on those bonds.”
The bond that paid in advance for the development of Milwaukee Avenue is set to be paid off in 2025, he said. Until then, no other major street development projects are in the works.
Two smaller gateway fund projects are budgeted for the current fiscal year, Franklin said; they are the segments of Indiana Avenue from FM1585 to 146th Street, and Upland Avenue from 66th Street to 82nd street.
While there is still more to come from the gateway street projects fund, city council may not prioritize another retail outlet hub for some time, he said. In fact, the council is looking more closely at residential streets that are inadequately developed.
Lubbock Metropolitan Planning Organization’s ten year transportation plan for fiscal years 2017 through 2026. Image obtained from Wood Franklin.
“That’s kind of become a large priority for (city council) to take these residential streets especially and look at getting those paved,” Franklin said. “Especially the ones that have a lot of houses on it.”
But the gateway fund has led to more than just the expansion of Milwaukee. Completion of the Marsha Sharp Freeway, the Loop 289 overpass at Slide Road, Lubbock Business Park Boulevard and many other projects have been financed through the gateway fund.
Despite its litany of successfully completed projects, the fund still endures public scrutiny. Jeff Griffith, City Council District 3 Representative, said the fund was designed to create passageways into Lubbock, not for sustaining already-developed roads.
“The gateway fund is exactly that term — (for) gateways into the city,” Griffith said. “It’s not made for street maintenance.”
But the gateway fund’s budget includes over $2 million for pavement on west 50th Street and $340,000 for improvements to Quaker Avenue roadway, according to documents obtained by The Hub@TTU.
More than 1,200 linear miles of streets and over 1,100 linear miles of alleyways are contained within Lubbock’s city limits, Griffith said. Planning and prioritizing the development of these roads required a mindful approach.
“If you look at our overall rating of streets comparatively to other cities of our size range in West Texas, we actually have a better rating,” he said. “Abilene, Amarillo, Midland and Odessa — our road rating as a whole is greater than theirs.”
The number of unpaved roadways in Lubbock is concerning to Sheila Patterson-Harris, City Council District 2 Representative, said. While the fund can be touted for anecdotal success, there is still much to be done in the city’s under-developed areas.
Once more of the fund’s older debt is paid off, historically neglected regions of Lubbock can expect to see more roadway development projects, Patterson-Harris said. These plans will include refurbishments to brick roadways in Lubbock’s downtown area as well.
Because these street projects are costly in nature, it will take time for the fund’s full scope to be realized, she said. City council wants to expand Lubbock carefully, not rapidly.
“It bothers me that things are as bad as they are,” Patterson-Harris said. “But, in order to completely pull those things off, we need the money to make sure that it gets done and that it gets done well.”
About Reece Nations, Managing Editor
