Brittany Kelley
SAN MARCOS — The Hays County Commissioners Court tabled a development agreement for the Hays Commons development at its April 28 meeting.
According to commissioner Walt Smith, an item regarding a variance request for the development, located at the corner of FM 1626 and SH 45 in both Travis and Hays counties, has come in front of the court several times.
“Whenever this first came up, we actually had a conversation here and the direction of the court that, at least my direction, I would not support a straight variance. The only way there would be a variance of any type would be if we did some type of development agreement,” said Smith. “Those development agreements, they actually give the county additional means, additional hooks that we don’t have statutorily.”
The development is in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the county, which allows the developer to not follow or adhere to any planning and zoning authority, continued the commissioner. So, he pushed that they would have to get full utilization of the property, which is included in the development agreement, and that a portion of the land would remain untouched, to avoid a house every 30 feet.
“I was not going to accept, in my precinct, just a blanket variance with no incentivization or nothing coming back to the county,” Smith emphasized. “That being the case, I do have some concerns, since it is the first time it has appeared on the agenda, as far as the full development agreement, I do want to go through a 30-day posting and require that of the developer.”
Following Smith’s introduction, Judge Ruben Becerra introduced more than 60 individuals that signed up to speak regarding the item, one of which was resident Jim Camp.
Camp noted that he has been in Precinct 4 for 30 years and that in that time, he has worked with leaders in the community to protect water and land. He shared that in 1986, a 350-acre development was proposed in the same area, which was denied by both the city of Austin and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. This land was later sold to another company, which sold to Milestone Developers — the company building Hays Commons.
Speaker Karen Aboussie added to this history, stating that Milestone previously tried to get impervious cover variance approval from the Save Our Springs Alliance in Austin, but was denied: “Now, they are going to Hays County to try to do essentially the same thing.”
Hays City Council member Lydia Bryan-Valdez began her comment by noting the lack of time residents had to prepare for the item. Despite this, she shared that the city is “small but mighty” and at the very least, requested the item to be tabled to allow more consideration.
“The main concern of the city of Hays and the residents is the T-Lap Wastewater facility that the Hays Commons proposes to build. There is a contested hearing going on right now with the Hays Common application to build it. If approved, it will place 150,000 gallons of wastewater per day on the land immediately behind my home, my daughter’s home — where my grandchildren live — and the homes of other residents,” stressed Bryan-Valdez, adding that they are also concerned about runoff and harm to groundwater.
Ultimately, residents, from both Hays and Travis counties, were concerned regarding the environmental impact of the project.
“I do want to offer some points for clarification. At the end of the day, if the court chooses not to move forward with this — I want the residents to understand what that means — [Hays Commons] will come back and not request any variance from the county and every square foot of that property, if it’s not in a floodplain, if it meets our development regulations, by law that means we have to vote to support that,” Smith said.
The item will be tabled for approximately 45 days, until public notices can be placed in the newspaper.
“There is a lot of concern about this property and this developer specifically that I feel we as a court need to look more into,” said commissioner Michelle Cohen. “So, I’m glad you’re tabling it and that way we can all get a better understanding of what we’re dealing with here and what our options are.”
The Hays County Commissioners Court will meet next May 12.
