The Record’s online poll from Jan. 25 - Feb. 8 asked readers whether they think the Guadalupe County Commissioners Court made the right decision denying the festival permit for the 2019 Float Fest.
The Guadalupe County Commissioners Court denied the festival permit for the 2019 Float Fest during a hearing on Jan. 24 due to the “substantial danger of congestion and the disruption of other lawful activities.”
The commissioners went through the specific sections of the state law governing festival permits and had no qualms with the Float Fest application until the section of the law that considers whether the festival would create “substantial danger of congestion and the disruption of other lawful activities in the immediate vicinity of the festival.”
Guadalupe County had paid for a traffic study to be conducted at last year’s Float Fest. The traffic study took average daily traffic volume counts along Scull Road during the festival and compared those figures to average weekends. The Friday before the festival, there were 3,000 cars on Scull Road, compared to about 800 on an average day. The Saturday of festival weekend, there were between 11,000 and 12,000 cars on the road.
Joe Stallone, lawyer for Float Fest organizer Marcus Federman, said that organizers addressed those concerns in the 2019 application by intending to clear the brush from entrances and exits to make them wider, widening the emergency lane to allow quicker access and having tubing trucks on site days earlier to prevent backups caused by trucks with a wide turning radius. But residents of the area said they had encountered traffic congestion that was not mentioned in the study – that didn’t include the traffic coming from Highway 80 – and that there isn’t an alternate route to access Cottonseed Run.
The poll asking, “Do you think the Guadalupe County Commissioners Court made the right decision?” received a total of 143 votes, with the majority of votes — 65 percent or 93 votes — going to option “Yes, the traffic congestion disrupts “other lawful activities.” Thirty-five percent of voters, or 50 votes, chose, “No, the organizers addressed all the issues that would cause traffic.”
A majority of poll voters think that the commissioners made the right decision to deny the permit because the traffic congestion disrupts “other lawful activities.” Every week, the Record gives its readers the opportunity to voice their opinions on different topics. This poll does not, and does not purport to, accurately depict public opinion. It is only intended to inspire thought-provoking discussion within the community.
SMDR’s new poll is available online now, and asks for reader’s opinions on whether or not they think the 42-inch natural gas pipeline that Kinder Morgan wants to build should be constructed through the Wimberley Valley. It can be voted on now.
