Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Article Image Alt Text

Street name change plans shot down

Hopkins vs. Hunter
Thursday, February 7, 2019

The decision is final: Hunter Road will remain Hunter Road as it stretches eastward toward downtown, until it reaches the intersection with San Antonio Street.

City Council held a public hearing and a vote on a proposed ordinance that would change the street name of Hunter Road between Wonder World Drive and West San Antonio Street to West Hopkins Street. The rationale, according to the city agenda, would be to “eliminate multiple street names along the continuity of a single street.” 

City planning chief Shannon Mattingly gave a staff presentation on the proposal. According to the agenda, staff looked into changing the street name when council was discussing a speed limit change on that stretch of road and “directed staff to review the possibility of a street name change as a better transition into the West Hopkins Street residential area.”

Mattingly noted that the city had received a letter protesting the name change.

“We also received a petition from the property owners along that stretch asking us not to make that name change,” Mattingly said. “There were 85 signatures on that petition.”

Mattingly noted that when the issue came up at a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, numerous residents spoke about how a street name change would affect them and all the paperwork they would have to fill out related to drivers licenses, mail, bills and “everything that they have to do to make that happen.” P&Z voted unanimously to deny the street name change.

During the public hearing, San Marcos resident Roland Saucedo said he could not find in the minutes of any city council meeting a request from council to look into changing the street name. He then asked council to deny the name change.

“There’s no confusion, there’s no problems,” he said, noting that the author of the letter council received stated, “They don’t have problems with 911 service, with GPS, with deliveries. … I don’t know anybody in the city that gets confused.”

Bernie Zurbriggen, who lives in the Purgatory Creek apartment complex along that stretch of Hunter Road, spoke on behalf of his fellow residents and noted that a street name changes would require residents to order new checks and make changes to vehicle registration, passports and other documentation.

“This street has always been known to us as Hunter Road,” he said, adding that it has had that name for decades. “It’s not like it’s a new thing.”

Resident Dennis Moore suggested that the city put up a sign at the intersection of Hunter Road and West San Antonio noting that the road is Hopkins Street in one direction and Hunter Road in the other direction in case there is confusion.

Council member Melissa Derrick made the motion to deny the name change.

“I don’t remember ever chiming in that we should change the street name, and I think y’all should be able to keep it,” she said. 

The motion passed unanimously.

Council also gave unanimous approval on the first of two readings of an ordinance reducing the speed limit from 30 miles per hour to 25 in portions of the Blanco Gardens and Blanco Terrace neighborhoods. 

The streets affected are:

  • The 1400 block of Harper Drive, between River Road and Bugg Lane
  • The 600-1300 blocks of Barbara Drive between River Road and Bugg Lane
  • The 600-1300 blocks of Conway Drive between River Road and Bugg Lane
  • The 200-300 block of Sherbarb Street between Linda Drive and Barbara Drive
  • The 600-900 blocks of Sturgeon Drive between River Road and Seth Street  
  • The 100-200 block of Highline Drive
  • The 100-200 block of Wendell Drive
  • The 400-500 block of Bliss Lane between Barbara and Sturgeon
  • The 400-500 block of Mary Lane between Barbara and Sturgeon
  • The 100-200 block of Clair Drive between Barbara and Sturgeon
  • The 100-300 blocks of Smith Lane

The city received a petition with signatures from 110 addresses in those two neighborhoods in favor of the speed limit reduction and signatures from three addresses in opposition to the reduction. There are a total of 338 addresses in Blanco Gardens and Blanco Terrace, meaning that residents at almost one-third of the addresses are in favor of the slower speed limit. 

San Marcos Record

(512) 392-2458
P.O. Box 1109, San Marcos, TX 78666