SAN MARCOS CITY COUNCIL
Five Mile Dam and the attached soccer fields and park areas, which are nestled on the outskirts of town right before the Kyle city line, have been a recreational haven for San Marcans since 1931 and will now officially be owned by the city. The San Marcos City Council voted five to zero with two absent to approve a sales contract for the purchase of Five Mile Dam Park property from Hays County for only half of the closing expenses at the regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday.
San Marcos City Manager Stephanie Reyes said that ownership of the soccer fields has been discussed for years. An inspection will be done on the dam, and the county has agreed to share costs with the city to ensure that it is being turned over in good condition.
“The soccer fields are enjoyed by our families in San Marcos. They’re an asset to the community in terms of the recreation they provide. They are currently owned by the county but maintained by the city,” Reyes said. “For a long time, we’ve been talking with Hays County about taking over … ownership of those fields. They have told us very clearly that it’s a package deal with Five Mile Dam. So it’s not necessarily that we were jumping up and down to have File Mile Dam because maintaining a dam is not always the easiest thing.”
San Marcos Assistant City Manager Rodney Gonzales said Hays County will continue to maintain and patrol the park through Sept. 30, 2025.
“That gives us the time … to do the due diligence and compute just what the additional estimated cost is, so that way we can work it into the next fiscal year’s budget,” Gonzales said. “Hays County did provide us with a 2016 Dam Evaluation Report from Freese and Nichols. The report showed that the dam is in overall good condition. There were no recommendations related to any improvements to the dam. Now of course, that report is eight years old, and they are in the process of updating that. We did work into the agreement that should there be any significant improvements that are identified in the new report that we would then talk with Hays County at that time about what the improvements are.”
Gonzales added that the contract includes a due diligence phase, so the city can take its time pouring over everything related to the acquisition, “making sure that we are going into this transaction with eyes wide open and that should there be something needed of significance we will have that information.”
City Council Member Mark Gleason noted that the acquisition is a “big deal” and he’s happy to see it.
“We’re codifying an additional 80 acres of usable, today, parkland into the city that we will control,” Gleason said. “I know there’s going to be challenges to it. So thanks to staff for working through this and doing due diligence on it because there’s going to be enforcement mechanisms and maintenance of the dam [that will need to be worked out].”
Jamie Lee Case, San Marcos Parks and Recreation director, said there are great opportunities with this, including “maybe a dog park or something out there.”
“We will have to annex the two parks that are currently not annexed,” Case said, adding that the soccer fields were annexed in 2011 when the city decided to take over their maintenance.
Learn more about the park at this link hayscountytx. gov/five-mile-dampark.
