A lot subdivision in Gemini Oaks approved by Kendall County commissioners last week divided more than just some land as a rift was formed in the once small, tightknit community.
In 2009, Jeff and Stephanie Sommers purchased a scenic tract of land in a slice of retained Hill Country property off Ammann Road. The roughly 12-acre tract on the tree-lined Savannah Jon Boulevard east of Highway 46 is nestled among 14 other estate lots, resting in the southeast section of the county where development contestation is common – and growth often is resented by residents.
“Gemini Oaks is a microcosm of the broader Kendall County,” Sommers’ neighbor, Joe Demarest, said. “If you had 85 percent of the entire Kendall County population opposed to a measure it wouldn’t be approved. In this case, here we are. We had 85 percent of Gemini Oaks property owners oppose this particular measure for subdivision of lot 7A. We ask you to disapprove or deny this application.”
Demarest, using Gemini Oaks as a sort of synecdoche for the greater county, suggested the commissioners would not approve a measure if a majority of county residents opposed it. However, the commissioners repeatedly have noted their hands are tied in some instances as state law largely has impeded their ability to control or formally influence development.
“I might add that we had 100 percent commissioner members who were against the approval of Lily Ranch and more than 85 percent of the public against it, too,” County Judge Darrel Lux said. “Unfortunately, based upon the rules we had in that particular incident, it was approved. So, I am interested to hear that three (commissioner) members have already decided to approve. In their minds they may have, or they may not have, but that’s quite interesting to me.”
The Lily Ranch subdivision developers have had a difficult go at getting that project off the ground after the county commissioners denied an original plan, citing disfavored density from both the officials and hordes of public protests and as a water connection to the site was delayed after San Antonio Water Systems began the process of forfeiting its service district in Kendall County. The project later was strongarmed through the commissioners’ court through the legal limitations imposed by state legislation on county authorities, but not without the commissioners voicing their distaste for the development.
While the Sommers family has said they purchased the property with the intent to subdivide it, seeking out property with that specific intent in mind, they explained during the commissioners meeting last week that the division is to allow their mother to build a home on the property next door. However, the process seemed to create some distrust among the neighbors as scoffs could be heard among the crowd as the couple explained their intent.
Kendall County Development Engineer Mary Ellen Schulle said there is a county ordinance requiring a supermajority of commissioners to approve a request for relief to operate outside county development rules if 20 percent of adjacent property owners opposed a measure. However, this did not apply in this scenario.
The lot subdivision into two roughly 6-acre tracts was approved as the divided lots met the county’s size and frontage minimums, leaving no request for relief as the measure adhered to county development rules.
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