Members of the Boerne City Council approved another amendment to the seemingly ever-controversial Boernebak, or Corley Farms, development, reducing the overall lot count by nine. But the move is a drop in the bucket in the way of more than the 1,100-home and the expansive commercial and multi-family development.
The change allowed the northern most tract, Tract 14, of the development to go from 30 single-family lots to a single lot with 35 detached homes. It’s the first of two districts to be platted and developed as it was split and includes 373 acres with hundreds of single-family lots and 40.3 acres of multifamily and commercial development.
Supplying utilities to the sprawling development has been enveloped in controversy since its beginning. Boerne was offered first rights to supply water in 2016, but the size of the project left leaders opting out. Records showed this sparked a series of controversial measures.
Legislative action
After the city turned down the water supply, Senate Bill 914 was filed in 2017 by State Sen. Donna Campbell, R-25, to the surprise of city and county officials alike. The bill established a Water Control and Improvement District across the development.
A WCID is an independent, local municipality that has “broad authority to supply and store water for domestic, commercial and industrial use; operate sanitary wastewater systems; and provide irrigation, drainage and water-quality services,” according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Despite efforts to halt the legislation, SB 914 passed and was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in June 2017, creating WCID No. 3. However, this was just the first in a series of legislative efforts that would lead to public frustration and opposition as the newly formed water district sought outside services that would require decades-long water legislation to change.
SB 914 required the city of Boerne to consent to the creation of the new water district as it falls within its extra-territorial jurisdiction. The city spent the next two years working with developers on an agreement before consenting to the water district’s development, tabling a resolution that would provide consent numerous times between 2017 and 2019.
SAWS
In 2018, San Antonio Water Systems stepped up to the plate, offering its water services, which initiated a series of legislative efforts to allow the sale of Edwards Aquifer water outside of the Edwards Aquifer Authority boundaries. The EAA was established in 1993 and oversees the management and protection of the Edwards Aquifer.
Legislation limited the sale of Edwards water outside of the agency’s set boundaries which encompasses several counties wholly and partially, including Uvalde, Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Atascosa, Hays and Caldwell.
According to minutes from SAWS board meetings, the agency entered a wholesale agreement with WCID No. 3 in August 2018, rescinding a previous Utility Service Agreement that required both approval from the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority – which was granted – and a backup water supply from the city, but Boerne continued refusal to tie into the development’s water supply.
More state action
The SAWS wholesale agreement ultimately resulted in the filing of two state legislative drafts in 2019 in the House and Senate – House Bill 1806, filed by Texas Rep. Tracy King, and Senate Bill 1170, filed by Campbell – which attempted to allow the sale of Edwards water outside of the EAA boundaries.
HB 1806 and SB 1170 read: “A municipally owned utility owned by the city of San Antonio may sell water withdrawn from the aquifer at wholesale to a retail public utility or river authority for use in a county adjacent to the boundaries of the authority.”
The companion bills nearly survived as HB 1806 passed both the state chambers and legislation was sent to Abbott’s desk. However, the Cow Creek Groundwater District sent a letter urging the governor to veto the bill.
The groundwater district argued that allowing the sale of Edwards water into Kendall County would render local authority obsolete and violate state law ordering there can’t be overlapping groundwater district jurisdiction, noting the EAA began as and continues to operate as an underground water district for the Edwards Aquifer.
“In the view of the (CCGCD) board of directors, this bill would have a direct negative impact on the effective governance because it runs contrary to the state’s long-standing, preferred method of groundwater management and removes local citizens and local elected officials from deciding local issues,” CCGCD Director Milan Michalec’s letter read.
“If allowed to become law, it would allow a single legislator, acting on behalf of a single developer, to proceed with their own agenda despite numerous written objections of local citizens and their locally elected representatives of affected city, county and groundwater districts.”
The letter was successful as Abbott vetoed the bill on June 15, 2019, keeping Edwards water out of Kendall County. This left the wholesale agreement between SAWS and WCID No. 3 intact, but it meant there was no back-up water source for the development beyond the raised storage tanks planned for the expansive project.
During the preliminary platting process for the development, Michalec questioned the practice as SAWS requires a backup from an alternate source. However, city attorneys argued when utilities are being provided by a state-approved and licensed entity, that’s the end of the city’s authority. The city had no legal authority once an alternative water source was identified in SAWS.
While the 2019 veto stopped the sale of Edwards water, another bill successfully passed through the state legislature that same year that pushed city officials to come to an agreement with the development after three years. According to an announcement issued by Boerne Mayor Tim Handren, HB 2590 created a route for WCID No. 3 to form without the city’s consent as required by SB 914 by petitioning to TCEQ.
“In simple terms, it (HB 2590) means that WCID No. 3 could move forward without any considerations from the city,” Handren’s announcement read. “It means that state legislators can exert more control on county land than any local officials can exert. This is an issue that is frustrating because citizens look to their local elected officials to responsibly manage the growth in and around a city like Boerne.”
A WCID is an independent, local municipality that has “broad authority to supply and store water for domestic, commercial and industrial use; operate sanitary wastewater systems; and provide irrigation, drainage and water-quality services,” according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Comment
Comments