Saturday, April 20, 2024
A second developer who hoped to skirt Granbury’s citywide development moratorium didn’t fare as well as the first one.
Members of the City Council told Dan Carter at its regular meeting on Tuesday, April 5, that they did not have enough information about his project involving apartment units and RV parking to grant him a waiver that would allow him to build the first phase and to construct septic facilities to serve those tenants.
The development moratorium is due to a delay in building a second wastewater treatment plant. City officials say that the current plant will be at capacity once projects that have already been approved go online.
On March 15, the Granbury City Council agreed to allow developer Phil Hope to build the first phase of his Sundance on Lake Granbury luxury townhomes, with Hope pumping wastewater from the 12 units and hauling it to a treatment facility in another city until the new wastewater treatment plant can be built.
City Manager Chris Coffman noted at the time that Hope’s clever plan might pave the way for other developers to do the same, which would alleviate some of the impact to economic development while the city awaits a decision from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The permit was stalled because of opposition from homeowners and business owners.
Carter proposed a plan similar to Hope’s and offered the council two options for phase one of his proposed development at 1312 Weatherford Highway, which would take up nine of the land parcel’s 32 acres. Carter said that no additional phases would be built until he was able to tie onto the city’s sewer system.
One option for phase one was to create 87 RV stalls and an area for RV storage. The other was to build 48 multi-family units within four individual buildings.
City engineer JoAnne Kamman told the council that allowing Carter to manage septic needs for his RV park “would be fine” where the city’s jurisdiction was concerned but that he would need permission from TCEQ to construct a septic system for the number of apartment units he wanted to build in phase 1.
Council members expressed concern about this and about other issues as well, including the fact that Carter’s plans would require a zoning change from low density to high density, which would go against the city’s Comprehensive Plan.
There was also the matter of the property having just one entrance and exit for the time being, which was a safety concern in councilman Eddie Rodriguez’s view.
Community Development Director Kira Wauwie noted that the entrance/exit does not meet the city’s width requirements.
Supporting documents for the agenda item stated that staff recommended denial of the waiver because not enough information had been provided.
Rodriguez said he felt that he could not “make an educated decision” on the matter. Mayor Jim Jarratt and Mayor Pro Tem Trish Reiner expressed the same view.
Reiner also indicated that she does not favor a zoning change at that location.
“Right now, that’s not something that I personally want to entertain,” she said.
The council voted unanimously to deny the waiver but took no votes on a zoning change or anything else related to the property.
Communications Manager Jeff Newpher told the Hood County News that Carter will decide the next step where development of the property is concerned.
