Bastrop City Council votes to lower speed limit to 60 on FM 969
The Bastrop City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to reduce the speed limit on the portion of FM 969 within the city limits.
City staff said the Texas Department of Transportation conducted a traffic study on FM 969 last year, which found that the road’s speed limit should decrease from 65 mph to 60 mph. This new ordinance accepts the traffic study’s findings and allows for future enforcement of the new speed limit.
Residents and City Council members said rapid development along FM 969 has brought more traffic and wrecks along the road. Resident Skip Connett called FM 969 “dangerous” and noted a significant increase in traffic fatalities in the past few years.
“About a year ago, we had two accidents at our intersection,” Connett said. “One was a fatality, and they tore down all of our mailboxes. We put them back up, and they were torn down again within a month.”
Connett, who later said he was citing TxDOT figures, said 65 car crashes happened last year on FM 969 in Bastrop County. There were 54 in 2022, he said, compared to 34 in 2020. Connett said speeding and commercial trucks are involved in roughly one-third of those wrecks.
“We had hoped to get (the speed limit) down to 55,” Connett said. “It’s been 55 (mph along FM 969) in Travis County for a couple of years now. … It’s going to be 60 all the way to the Bastrop County line.”
Connett said increased industrial activity from new gravel mines along FM 969 also contributes to the road’s traffic.
“It’s not going to do any good if there’s no enforcement,” Connett said. “I’ve been traveling that road for 15 years, and I can count on one hand how many times I’ve seen someone pulled over for speeding. … I know people who are avoiding 969, it’s gotten so bad.”
City Manager Sylvia Carrillo said TxDOT may not have considered the rate of future development along FM 969 in its traffic study. She said the density of older residential developments nearby doesn’t compare to the area’s new, much denser neighborhoods.
Council Member Jimmy Crouch proposed lowering the road’s speed limit to 55 mph within the city limits. City Attorney Alan Bojorquez said the city could reduce the speed limit if it had a traffic study with evidence to back up the change. Carrillo suggested the city could have an engineer look at the TxDOT study to see if it would support reducing the speed limit to 55 mph.
City officials said it was up to TxDOT to change the speed limit to 60, and that the timing was unclear.
Septic tank regulations approved
The City Council also approved changes to the city code regulating septic tanks, bringing the rules in line with county and state requirements. The change reduces the minimum lot size allowed to have a septic tank from one acre to half an acre. The city continues to overhaul its Bastrop Building Blocks, or B3, city code, which it adopted in 2019.
Additionally, the council unanimously approved Mayor Lyle Nelson’s latest appointment to the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment. The council handed the empty seat to Keith Ahlborn, who volunteered to serve on the board, Nelson said.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Bastrop City Council votes to lower speed limit on FM 969
