By Edmond Ortiz
Representatives for a Florida-based company still face overwhelming opposition – at least at the local level – in their efforts to build a 3,000-home, master-planned community in northwest Bexar County.
Despite opposition from environmental organizations, grassroots groups and area elected officials, representatives for Lennar Corp. say they still have the legal authority and pathways to make the developer’s Guajolote Ranch subdivision a reality.
What is happening
Lennar’s latest stumble came at a five-hour Jan. 16 meeting of the San Antonio Planning Commission, where the panel voted 5-4 to recommend denial of a petition by the company and property owners to create a municipal utility district. The recommended rejection now goes to the San Antonio City Council for consideration on Feb. 5. The council is slated to first get a briefing on the matter Jan. 22.
A developer can have a MUD created by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality of the Texas Legislature in order to place initial infrastructure to support new construction. MUDs are funded by property taxes, which are levied on residents within district boundaries and pay off bonds for infrastructure such as roads, sidewalks, drainage, and water and wastewater pipes.
Kevin DeAnda, an attorney with the local law firm Ortiz McKnight, represented Lennar at the planning commission meeting. He said a MUD can help to make things easier and faster when it comes to introducing a new residential development, especially in an unincorporated part of Bexar County such as the 1,160-acre tract in the Guajolote Ranch, the site of Lennar’s proposed, controversial development.
Because the site lies within San Antonio’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, Lennar seeks the city’s consent as the property owners have agreed to enter into a 30-year development agreement with the city.
The pact – and the existence of a MUD – would allow the city to enforce minimum developmental regulations on the land, and offer terms for voluntary annexation of the property once the agreement expires. That pact, DeAnda said, is currently being drafted.
According to DeAnda, given the achievement of bureaucratic steps, including a wastewater discharge permit from TCEQ and a water service deal with the San Antonio Water System, Lennar has followed the necessary requirements to proceed with the project.
While the state requires a city’s creation to create a MUD, it is not a deal-breaker for the project city officials fail to give consent. The developer can still go directly to TCEQ or the legislature, if needed, to have the district created. Also, Lennar would have to negotiate a wastewater service agreement with SAWS.
DeAnda also said Lennar’s plans will ensure minimal impacts on the surrounding environment and roads, and that a MUD will help to keep an on-site wastewater treatment plant properly maintained.
“Today, we have what we need to develop this site,” he added.
What opponents are saying
But dozens of people spoke out at the meeting, saying the proposed Guajolote Ranch project is too big and risky to approve. Many speakers voiced their fear that wastewater discharge and drainage runoff from the new development could contaminate the Edwards and Trinity-Glen Rose aquifers, which provide drinking water for San Antonio, nearby towns such as Helotes and Grey Forest, and other communities.
Several representatives from organizations such as Scenic Loop Helotes Creek Alliance, Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance and the Conservation Society of San Antonio offered reasons for their opposition. Elected officials at varying levels of area government, including State Sen. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels), and leaders from Bexar County, San Antonio, Grey Forest and Helotes have stated their objection or at least some form of concern about the project.
Others said future residents of an envisioned Guajolote Ranch MUD should not be taxed to help the developer fund infrastructure improvements in their own subdivision. A few more detractors said Lennar officials assume they have the Guajolote Ranch deal in the bag given their moves to plan out a gas station and retail space near the development site.
Lynette Munson, an SLHCA member and a Helotes resident, charged that Lennar has no adequate plan for emergency first-responder access into a 3,000-home subdivision.
“This isn’t a paperwork issue, this is a life safety issue. A single access point for a neighborhood of 3,000 homes is not a minor deviation, but is a catastrophic risk in the event of a wildfire, structure fire, medical emergencies or road blockage,” Munson said. “Scenic Loop Road is already overburdened. It is not an arterial roadway. There are no plans or funds to make it one, yet the developer is moving ahead as if these facts don’t matter.”
Commissioners’ debate
After a series of back-and-forth questioning between several commissioners and Lennar’s representatives, some panel members said they felt that, despite valid objections put forth by project opponents, the city of San Antonio should give consent to creating the MUD because it gives local officials the ability to have some say about how the Guajolote Ranch property is used if development goes forward.
“I would rather have the city at the table than not,” commission Chair George Peck said before casting a vote to recommend approval of the MUD petition.
San Antonio District 4 City Councilmember Edward Mungia, who serves on the planning commission, said critics of the project have a right to be worried about potential hazards that might result from such a massive development on environmentally sensitive land. He mentioned how several fellow council members have already voiced their concerns about Lennar’s plans, and that the developer does not even need the city’s endorsement.
Additionally, Mungia reminded commissioners and the audience that the property owners’ sale of the land in question has not been finalized.
“This is about what can happen, what will happen, what’s guaranteed to happen and how much we’re going to help that development happen with our hand at the city,” Mungia said.
DeAnda responded Lennar has spent much money and time trying to develop the Guajolote Ranch tract, and the company remains committed to its efforts, despite the level of opposition from neighbors and environmentalists, and the concern shown by elected officials.
Even so, Lennar recently withdrew a wastewater permit application with TCEQ following a massive pushback against a 1,100-home development that the company proposed for construction in the unincorporated community of Comfort, north of Boerne.
“It is not in the cards for Lennar to walk away from this deal,” he added.
After the planning commission vote, groups opposed to the Guajolote Ranch proposal set their sights next on the San Antonio council’s planned discussions on the MUD petition. Helotes City Council is scheduled to meet Jan. 22 to consider stating formal objection to the application.
