By Eleni Himaras, Staff Writer

Residents of Reveille Road will get the opportunity to speak publicly on some issues surrounding the ever-changing plans for the footpath, and all residents will get to weigh in on two potential ordinance changes at next month’s West Lake Hills City Council meeting.
The council will hear from the public on a proposed parking ban on the east side of Reveille Road once the foot path is constructed and hear input from residents on whether they’d like the new sidewalk tinted, which would cost about an additional $4,000.
“My sense is that we are hearing emphatically from the people who are opposed to this, and we’re not hearing from everyone who is for it,” said Mayor Dave Claunch.
To prevent a safety hazard, the new sidewalk would preclude residents from allowing guests to park on the street, which many currently do when they entertain. The city is sending all residents a letter informing them of the meeting and will hear comment next month.
At last week’s meeting, city engineer Steve Ramsey told the council that while they had budgeted $75,000 for the project, the low bid came in at about $55,000.
“We had 15 contractors bid… we usually get two, three, maybe four on a project this size,” Ramsey said.
Because of the extremely low bid, council members voted to have the sidewalk stretch uniformly down the road instead of breaking at each driveway as previously designed. This decision cancelled out the possibility of using the far more expensive pervious cement, as it could not be overlaid on the driveways. The low bid also presented the opportunity to spend more for the integrated tint.
“I want to thank you for the path not only for those residents on Reveille but the many, many residents who use our street as a walking path,” Reveille Road resident Laurie Maccini said.
Driveways came up again later in the meeting as council members worked to revise wording that creates a loophole that residents could use to build circular driveways. While they delayed specific wording until the next meeting, council members agreed that each primary dwelling per lot may only have one driveway in which the entrance is also the exit.
The council also attempted to close a similar loophole in the height ordinance. The ordinance currently sets the maximum height of the house at 30 feet from the average height of the natural grade, but includes attached structures in the formula without specifying how it should be attached. This means that a garage much higher on a sloped property connected by only a fence could potentially allow the height of the structure at the lowest point of the slope to be much higher than 30 feet.
“They are beautiful homes, but they don’t match what we are trying to do in West Lake,” said Councilman Stan Graham in his presentation on the height ordinance.
The council agreed that wording needed to be changed but held the final approval until the next meeting.
They did vote to change the ordinance regulating expiration and extension of building permits at last week’s meeting. The council voted to have a specific cost for a permit extension instead of the current formula, which is half of the original permit, but did not set the cost yet. Council members also limited the number of extensions any builder could receive to two, meaning that all construction must be completed within four years with the two years from the original permit and two potential year-long extensions.
“If construction on that permit, or any extension, is not started within 60 days, the permit is revoked,” Claunch said.
The next West Lake Hills City Council meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 12 at 911 Westlake Drive.