Hays County has quietly pulled a major project out of Kyle’s park system. On June 23, the Hays County Commissioners Court voted to remove Kyle Vista Park and the city of Kyle from consideration as the site of its planned Eastside Campus and to terminate the memorandum of understanding the county signed with the city in 2025. That vote sends county leaders back to the map, this time to look for property the county already owns outside Kyle’s city limits instead of putting a major facility on leased parkland. County officials said the regional animal services project that was bundled with the earlier plan will still move forward even as the site search shifts.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Morgan Hammer said the money and the land deal were at the heart of the decision. “It's a very expensive project, and putting a very expensive project on leased land from the city of Kyle wasn't ideal,” Hammer said, as reported by Community Impact. He also pointed to a steady stream of resident emails and recent changes in Kyle’s leadership as factors that pushed the court away from using Kyle Vista Park.
The June 23 decision became official during the Commissioners Court meeting, when members approved a motion to stop pursuing the roughly 13.22-acre Kyle Vista parcel and to send a termination letter to the city of Kyle, according to the court agenda and meeting record. The full packet and meeting video, which include the motion language and public comment on the item, are posted by the Hays County Commissioners Court.
The Eastside Campus had been pitched as a three-story, roughly $65 million county administrative building that would house about 175 county staff members and a variety of public services, according to Community Impact. That reporting also noted that the county had already authorized funding mechanisms to pay for the campus and related facilities, and it stated that the animal shelter portion of the collaborative plan would remain in place despite the vote. Commissioners have said the shift in direction is meant to keep a major capital project on land the county firmly controls, avoiding any future uncertainty tied to a lease.
Community reaction and park protection push
Neighbors who opposed putting a county complex on land long envisioned for parks showed up at meetings and organized around keeping Kyle Vista Park focused on recreation. The county’s June 25 open house at Gemstone Palace, held to gather public input, was covered by Hays Free Press. Around the same time, organizers launched an online petition in mid-June urging officials to drop the park site entirely, according to the petition page on Open Petition.
Funding and next steps
Well before the Kyle Vista decision, the county had authorized up to $100 million in certificates of obligation to fund the Eastside Campus and other county facility projects, according to the county’s public notice. With the Kyle parcels now off the table, commissioners have directed staff to focus on county-owned land and to bring back a set of recommended sites so the project can proceed on property the county already controls, per the court record.
Commissioners did not lock in a specific timeline for choosing a new site during the June 23 meeting, but their direction makes clear that the next phase of planning will stay on county-owned ground. County communications staff and commissioners have said they will continue public outreach as new options are developed and will present recommended locations at a future Commissioners Court meeting.
