Comal County is stepping into the Texas Bicentennial Trail game, but with its wallet held firmly in the other hand.
On April 2, county commissioners voted to support a request for federal design funding tied to the Texas Bicentennial Trail, a planned 100-mile spring-to-spring route between Austin and San Antonio. The resolution backs a proposal from the Great Springs Project to the 2026 Texas Federal Lands Access Program and makes clear the county is only committing to design work for now, county officials said.
Engineers told commissioners the Hunter Road segment is envisioned as a 10- to 12-foot shared-use path running along FM 2439 and FM 1102, with portions in both Hays and Comal counties. Supporters say the larger trail would link Barton, San Marcos, Comal and San Antonio springs while helping protect key Edwards Aquifer recharge land.
Big numbers, regional impact
The Great Springs Project’s own economic analysis pegs the completed Bicentennial Trail and related conservation work at roughly $55.9 million in annual benefits across Travis, Comal, Hays and Bexar counties, combining visitor spending, transportation savings, health gains and ecosystem services, according to the Great Springs Project. The organization breaks that into about $23.3 million in direct economic activity, $11.4 million in transportation benefits, $1.8 million in health savings and roughly $19.2 million tied to land and water services.
Local coverage of the report estimates Comal County alone could see about $16.34 million a year in benefits and notes New Braunfels’ Headwaters at the Comal as a planned stop on the route, as reported by the Herald‑Zeitung. That reporting also cites projections that the completed network would draw millions of pedestrian and bicycle trips each year and models health and carbon-sequestration benefits connected to the conservation work.
Commissioners sign on, with questions
The Comal County Commissioners Court approved Resolution 2026-11, but not before pressing for firm limits on what they were actually signing up for. Public minutes show commissioners wanted to be sure they were not quietly committing the county to future construction costs.
County Engineer Robert Boyd told the court the measure “supports the completion of the design only” and said the design process would factor in where a sidewalk should go if the roadway is widened in the future, according to the Comal County minutes. Commissioner Scott Haag questioned whether a shared-use path next to a high-speed highway could end up as “a sidewalk in the middle of nowhere” if it is not carefully located, but the court ultimately voted to support pursuing the design application.
Multi-jurisdiction push for FLAP funding
Comal is not going it alone. Hays County has already adopted a resolution authorizing a joint application to the 2026 Texas Federal Lands Access Program to advance design work along FM 2439, and the city of San Marcos placed a supporting resolution for the Hunter Road FLAP application on its May 5 council agenda.
The Hays County resolution describes the grant as a way to improve access to the San Marcos Aquatic Resources Center while advancing a shared-use segment that would cross both counties, according to the San Marcos city agenda. Supporters argue that presenting a coordinated, multi-jurisdiction application will boost the region’s chances of landing federal design funds.
Conservation, springs and local benefits
Protecting Edwards Aquifer recharge land is a central selling point. Reporting on the project describes a long-term conservation goal of roughly 50,000 acres across the recharge and contributing zones. A spring-to-spring route would bring visitors to local landmarks, including the Headwaters at the Comal in Landa Park, while giving conservation groups more leverage to acquire or protect sensitive parcels, according to reporting by Texas Public Radio and the project’s trail planning documents. Advocates say pairing publicly accessible trails with targeted land protection offers both recreation value and water-quality benefits for the region.
What happens next
For now, Comal County’s move is strictly about keeping the design effort alive. The resolution only authorizes support for the FLAP design application and does not obligate the county to pay for construction, and officials have said any building costs would have to be identified later.
If the application wins a FLAP award, federal money would cover design work on the segment. Actual construction would still require additional state, local or private funding and would unfold as part of the broader, phased buildout envisioned by HB 4230, the legislation that created the Texas Bicentennial Trail and set a completion target of January 1, 2036, as outlined by the Texas General Land Office.
In the near term, the to-do list stays pretty workmanlike: secure design funding, settle on a safe alignment for the Hunter Road stretch and start turning a regional vision into a trail people can actually walk and ride.
