Drivers on Farm to Market Road 725 near Vogel Elementary School could soon see a stricter speed limit, after the Seguin City Council approved a speed-limit ordinance on first reading on October 5. The change would cut speeds on some stretches of FM 725 from 55 mph to 40 mph, and drop the school zone in front of Vogel Elementary from 35 mph to 25 mph, pending a second and final vote.
The council is scheduled to take up the second reading on October 20, according to MySA. The proposed reduction follows at least a year of petitioning from community members who wanted lower speeds along the corridor, which runs 16.3 miles between Seguin and New Braunfels, according to AARoads.
Why the Numbers Finally Moved
The push wasn't just anecdotal. The Texas Department of Transportation conducted a study examining road characteristics, three years of crash history, and speed and volume data along the stretch, and the study found that a reduction in the currently posted speed limit was warranted, according to city council documents cited in the same MySA report. TxDOT gave internal approval to the change in late September and is now preparing signage for installation while it awaits Seguin's final sign-off.
State Representative Alan Schoolcraft's office and members of the community both raised concerns about road safety on the corridor, and Marc D. Williams said those concerns helped advance the change, per a statement posted online by Josh Bright, the district 7 trustee on the Seguin ISD board of trustees. Schoolcraft represents Texas House District 44, covering Guadalupe and Gonzales counties, and previously served in the legislature from 1981 to 1993 before returning to his seat in 2024, according to his biography from the Texas House of Representatives.
Parents Describe a Daily Gauntlet
Bright reported that the speed limit on FM 725 in front of Vogel Elementary is on its way down, a development he's been pushing toward since at least April 2025, when he and Vogel Elementary school administration made multiple attempts to address the traffic safety issue. At that time, Bright proposed lowering the speed limit, increasing law enforcement presence, and improving signage and road markings, arguing that preventable traffic incidents should cause no injury or loss of life and that the Vogel Elementary school zone should be made a safe haven through collective action.
Doni Juarez, describing conditions at the school, said parents walk alongside their children and help keep distance between crosswalks and traffic. Juarez also said cars frequently reach crossing guards before coming to a complete stop and speed through the school zone. Back in April 2025, Bright said commuters' disregard for safety measures, despite the presence of crossing guards and school-zone signage, put children who routinely cross the roads at risk.
A Fast-Growing Corridor Outpacing Its Road
Vogel Elementary, located at 16121 FM 725 in Seguin, serves students in kindergarten through 5th grade, with enrollment estimated between roughly 375 and 480 students within the Seguin Independent School District. The campus sits near the Arroyo Ranch subdivision, a D.R. Horton project planned for nearly 1,100 single-family homes at full buildout at the corner of State Highway 46 and FM 725, according to the Seguin Economic Development Corporation.
That kind of growth is not isolated to one subdivision. Seguin's residential housing boom has more than 7,000 residential lots tied to developments under construction or in review in 2019, per the same economic development agency. The McQueeney Oaks development is also planned. Separately, a 312-acre parcel with more than 6,300 feet of frontage along FM 725 recently hit the market for future development, located within three miles of Seguin and two miles of Interstate 10, per listing details from HAR.com.
What the Law Requires Next
Under Texas Transportation Code Section 545.356, a municipal city council may alter prima facie speed limits on state highways based on an engineering and traffic investigation, according to FindLaw. Any new ordinance would not take effect until regulatory speed limit signage is actually installed on the roadway.
TxDOT guidelines for establishing school speed zones generally cap limits at 35 mph and recommend setting them up to 15 mph below the 85th percentile traffic speed when that speed is 50 mph or lower, with pedestrian crossing activity as a primary factor driving reductions, according to the agency's own published standards.
For now, the fate of the FM 725 school zone rests on the council's second reading next week, and on how quickly TxDOT can get its signage into the ground once Seguin gives the final word.
