By Brittany Anderson

HAYS — The small community of Hays has taken another step in trying to ensure that a 300-acre development does not end up causing more problems for its residents than already anticipated.

Hays City Council unanimously voted on Nov. 14 to deny a petition from MileStone Community Builders for the creation of a municipal utility district (MUD) on the proposed Hays Commons development. A MUD provides developers with an alternate way to finance infrastructure, such as water/wastewater and roads.

Hays Commons has faced intense pushback from residents, who believe it is too dense of a development to be built over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone and will have negative impacts on the local environment, city’s water and wastewater systems and overall livelihood of the rural community.

Many Hays residents and those of neighboring communities have attended Hays council meetings to bring up these concerns. Prior to the Nov. 14 council meeting, MileStone held a public work session with the council on Oct. 20 to discuss its amended development agreement (DA).

MileStone maintains that a MUD is just a financing mechanism for the development, but residents say that one concern with the MUD language within the amended DA is that it would give MileStone eminent domain, or the right to seize private property for public use, and subsequently give them the power of condemnation, or the legal process and procedure to actually do so.

“You’ve heard the warnings from the experts and the pleas from the residents,” resident Darlene Starr told council prior to the vote. “I believe the right to invoke eminent domain, to take people’s land, which the city of Hays would be giving to MileStone, is a particular danger to the residents of Hays … I ask you, [if approved]what confidence do you have that MileStone would not use condemnation powers granted by you to achieve their goal?”

Council heeded the community’s concerns: with its denial of the MUD, MileStone now has 120 days to go through TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) to submit an application for MUD approval. Environmental groups who have been keeping an eye on the development, however, are unsure if MileStone would be granted approval because of the development’s location over the recharge zone.

In the meantime, MileStone is also set to be working to schedule a time to meet with the city of Austin about potentially providing water and wastewater services to the development. Brian Zabcik of Save Barton Creek Association encouraged council to ensure that MileStone is transparent with Hays regarding these discussions, saying that if Austin agrees to provide services, they might require a less dense development, which MileStone might think of as “economically unfeasible.”

The next Hays City Council meeting will take place on Dec. 12 at Hays Hills Baptist Church, located at 1401 N. FM 1626 in Buda.