Commissioners hold final subdivision ordinance workshop

Gonzales County commissioners held Monday, Sept. 23, the last of three workshops on rewriting the county’s subdivision ordinance to bring it up to date.

Attorney Eric Gomez of the Braun & Gresham law firm in Dripping Springs spoke with commissioners about the progress that has been made so far, noting that the job is about 90 percent done. The Gonzales County Subdivision Rules, which were originally adopted July 23, 2007 were last amended in 2012 — 12 years ago.

“We've got the meat of it,” Gomez said. “We've got the framework and most of the particulars all spelled out. What we're missing still are the discretionary items that aren't really best practices, necessarily, but they're ‘What do you want to do?’ As far as a time frame, it's really just working out the details — we're real close. We could have it ready (for adoption) by the next court date (on Oct. 15).”
A lot of what is left also will be moving items into the appendices for the ordinance from the body of the document, which Gomez said should be done so “staff can continue to update the specifics and provide the recommended updates to the court for approval on the consent agenda so it doesn't have to go through the formal amendment process every time you want to change it.”

Gomez said the subdivision regulations and statutes which allow counties to control platting, subdividing and water availability, are updated nearly every session “because of the growth that Texas is going through and the water shortages.”
“These are hot button issues, so it's really important to stay on top of the updates,” Gomez said. “Counties are limited by what the statute says they can do. This is different from municipalities, who can do everything except for what the statute says they can't do.

“The Texas Local Government Code says these are the things counties can do, and that's it, so if there's any kind of power you want, we've got to use our creative processes to figure out which of the boxes that you have control over fits,” he added. “You have control over construction, for example, so if there’s any dust that is coming up from road construction, you can address it there. You have control over water quality issues, so erosion and sedimentation controls are a common requirement for construction permits, whether you're in the county or the city.”

Precinct 2 Commissioner Donnie Brzozowski asked Gomez if the county could put a disclaimer into the regulations that “the county's not responsible for the dust” that is stirred up by oilfield traffic on county roads or coming from private property.

“Is there anything we could do on that, even if it was a subdivision that was, you know, 10 or more?” Brzozowski asked. “Is there any way we could work that in?”

Precinct 3 Commissioner Kevin La Fleur said he sees a lot of issues with dust coming from railroad property in the county, which has been ongoing for the past three years.

“People will call in to TCEQ and they will come out and say, ‘Yeah, you’ve got a dust problem,’ and then TCEQ calls us wanting to put the burden on the county,” La Fleur said.

Gomez said he thinks the county would be well-suited to draft a disclaimer and adopt it into their current subdivision code.

Brzozowski also said he has concerns about people coming in and trying to develop subdivisions near large commercial chicken farms and egg-laying operations in the Waelder area.

“They're no telling how many hens they have out there and they were there before anybody else,” Brzozowski said. “Now these people want to build a subdivision right across the road from it. The flies are so bad, you can't hardly get out of your truck. Don't leave the window down because they'll stay with you for years. You can't get them out of there. There are the flies and it really smells bad.”

Brzozowski said the problem is a developer is going to develop the land near these chicken farms and “he’s going to sell it, and he's gonna drive off and get the profit, and he's gonna leave the problems with us.”

“We're trying to protect the people that are buying that piece of property,” Brzozowski said. “Some people drive out there and the wind’s blowing in the opposite direction. They sign a contract, and the husband tells his wife, ‘I bought this wonderful piece of property.’Then they go out there and the wind changes and the flies are jumping everywhere.”

Gomez suggested that part of the platting process, under health and safety, could be to make it required for developers to disclose the possibility of whether there is a chicken plant in the area. He noted that the county cannot dictate zoning, however.

“There are a lot of counties that are doing a lot of things that they don't have, in my opinion, a strong statutory basis to be requiring, but they still do it,” Gomez said. “I'm not saying that you don't have that statutory basis. I'm saying it's in a gray area, and you can argue both sides, whether or not you do.

“It stinks, because as as a commissioners court that cares about their citizens, you don't want that for them. Legally speaking, it's a tough area. People are impeded by the law doing their due diligence work before they buy a property, so what can you do? What can you do to maintain that balance —everything in your power not to do their job for them, but to give them a little heads up.”

Brzozowski also indicated his concerns about water, especially with subdivisions where people are sharing wells.

“It's just like these homeowner associations where they have these roads and they're supposed to have everybody put in a little money.,” he said. “That doesn't work out in these rural areas we got. I’ve got one now that people have been complaining because nobody wants to put in any money. But that’s not a county owned road.

“Those wells can be the same thing. What are they going to do if a well goes down and it costs $15,000 to fix it? Are they going to share the cost of that one? What if one is saying they don’t have the money and another says they can’t afford to pay it all, so then there they are sitting there without water.”

Gomez said the revised ordinance has “pretty robust regulations for water availability.”

“One of them is requiring a demonstration of water availability and the broad requirements around that,” Gomez said. “And one of those can be, arguably, requiring a shared well agreement, which is a standard legal contract.”

County Emergency Management Director and Development Director Jimmy Harless discussed road frontage and right of way requirements and the desire to possibly eliminate flag lots, or parcels of land shaped like a flag with a long, narrow strip of land extending from the street to the main part of the lot.

Harless said in preliminary talks, the county had discussed extending the road frontage requirement from 50 feet to 60 feet, which is “a normal right-of-way width.”

“Sixty feet would mean you could continue with the flag lots, but if you wanted to try to do away with the flag lots, with exceptions, you could go to 100 feet,” Harless said. “Guadalupe County has 200 feet, which I personally think is too much, but I'm thinking 100 feet minimum would cut down if not pretty much eliminate flag lots.”

Harless said the county has increased fees for septic systems permitting by $100 and floodplain permitting by $100 because “we are way behind on that.” He then discussed concerns about the permit fees for driveways, as single-family homes have long been just $50. He suggested the possibility of raising that amount to $250 and raising commercial permits (mobile home and RV parks, commercial businesses and subdivision entrances) to $400.

“If there's a typical driveway up to a single-family residence or a couple of houses, that's currently $50,” Harless said. “If they're building an interior road and those lots are coming off that interior road, we consider that commercial. That's not a driveway; that's an interior private street. The only thing we are trying to keep down is the farming and ranching side at $50.”

Commissioners discussed having to haul in several loads of concrete to lay down on the road and the right-of-way when new driveways are put in to protect the county roadways. That can run up to $500 per truckload of concrete, and if three are needed, that can be $1,500 in expense to the county.

After some discussion, commissioners indicated a desire to see the driveway fees go to $500 for residential and $1,500 for commercial.

Commissioners were asked by developers present if the new regulations would take affect for projects already in progress. While Brzozowski wanted this to take place, Gomez said any projects which had already paid permitting fees and submitted preliminary plats would be grandfathered in under the old ordinance.