Lubbock City Council calls $103M street bond election for Nov. 5

The Lubbock City Council on Tuesday voted to move forward with a debated street bond proposal, which is now set to go to a citywide vote in November.

The council approved an ordinance calling the bond election to coincide with the Nov. 5 presidential election. They also passed a resolution binding the city to use the funding for specific projects.

The council ultimately landed on a $103.4 million package, down from the originally proposed $110 million package suggested by a citizen advisory committee. The committee initially outlined 10 projects they recommended to the council last week, and the council whittled the list down to seven projects Tuesday evening.

The seven projects included in the package voters will consider in November are:

• Broadway from Avenue Q to Avenue E

• University Avenue from 50th Street to South Loop 289

• Upland Avenue from 98th Street to 114th Street

• 34th Street from Upland Avenue to Alcove Avenue

• 146th Street from University Avenue to Avenue P

• 146th Street from Slide Road to Quaker Avenue

• Avenue P from 130th Street to 146th Street

Each of these projects, with the exception of Broadway, is adjacent to a school.

More: Another street bond? Lubbock citizen committee proposes $110M package

The city council's adopted package scraps three projects from the initial proposal: a rebuild of Quaker Avenue from Fourth to 19th streets, an intersection buildout at 50th Street and Alcove Avenue and $2 million for unspecified upgrades in the South Overton neighborhood.

Councilmembers suggested these projects could be completed with regular road maintenance funding instead of being included in a bond.

"The way I look at this issue is, we need to be funding things that are truly bondable issues," Mayor Mark McBrayer said during the meeting. "I would like it to pass. I think it's important to bring it to our voters in a form that I think they will find palatable."

Mayor Pro Tem Christy Martinez-Garcia, who represents District 1, said during last week's committee presentation she felt her district was not getting enough. But Tuesday, she conceded the South Overton project in her district with the assurance it would be prioritized in the 2026 street maintenance budget.

The council also agreed to move forward with upgrades to a section Broadway as it was proposed by the citizen advisory committee.

The committee's recommendation included a complete rebuild of the portion of Broadway that runs though the heart of downtown, but excludes the use of the existing historic bricks for that project. Instead, the committee recommended the use of concrete and new brick pavers from Avenue Q to Avenue E, moving the historic bricks elsewhere, the Avalanche-Journal previously reported.

New red-colored brick pavers would go in the intersections and crosswalks, while the driving lanes would be paved in concrete, per the committee's suggestion. The committee prioritized this section of Broadway as the first in the interest of downtown revitalization, but chose to nix the bricks due to concerns over safety and its future lifespan and maintainability.

"The difficulty with a building material that's 100 years old is that there's a lot of unknowns compared to other building materials," committee Chair Heather Keister told the council. "We don't have a way to know how the historic brick will perform."

But critics of the package who spoke during the citizen comment period of Tuesday's meeting, many of whom defended the historic bricks, said the process to propose and call the bond election was rushed, inequitable and took advantage of the "unintentional deletion" of an ordinance intended to preserve the bricks.

"The entire process was much too rushed, trying to meet a deadline. While I appreciate the work that was done, the committee did not have sufficient time to look at all the issues," said Mary Crites, a local architect and member of the city's Urban Design and Historic Preservation Commission.

Others opposed the bond package because it would raise taxes on property owners in the city. Betsy Bloechl said she block-walked during mayoral election season, campaigning for Mark McBrayer and heard from many citizens they do not want their taxes raised.

"What we have to do is work together, and we have to find a way to not increase (taxes) or have another bond. … Put this bond issue off until January and get more facts," Bloechl said.

The council's decision to call the bond election came after hours of public comment, and the vote was unanimous.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock City Council calls $103M street bond election for Nov. 5