A couple of things caught my eye on tonight’s City Council agenda.
The first was the city’s intentions to shell out $3 million to purchase the wastewater treatment facility (WWTP) located in the city from Aqua Operations, effective Oct. 15. The agenda item does not mention the purchase price (you have to plow through the accompanying materials to find it). The agenda item says only "Consider and possible action regarding approval of a contract between the City of Kyle, Texas, and Aqua Operations, Inc., relating to the purchase of an existing wastewater treatment plant and related permit, equipment and other rights."
For the sake of absolute transparency, council agendas should not only contain the price of such purchases but also the funding source for said purchases. I assume the source of funds for this purchase is Water Utility Funds and I wonder if there will be any discussion this evening about whether a water rate hike will be required to pay for this.
From what I gather, the deal does not settle the lawsuits between the parties involving moneys owed or overcharges (depending on which side of the suit you're on).
According to the deal "Kyle may want to initiate planning and design of an expansion of the WWTP prior to the Closing Date." This could be especially true if Kyle assumes control of the proposed Anthem development on the western border of Mountain City. If that doesn’t happen, Anthem would have to build its own wastewater treatment plant and Mayor Todd Webster has stated quite clearly he would prefer expanding the city’s current facility rather than having a new WWTP "located upstream from us."
The other thing that caught my eye was the fact that Julieta Montes has withdrawn her request to have her property located at 503 Burleson rezoned from single family residential to neighborhood commercial. I wrote about this after the Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously to deny her rezoning request. Actually the item on tonight’s agenda reads "(First Reading) An ordinance amending Chapter 53 (Zoning) of the City of Kyle, Texas, for the purpose of rezoning approximately 0.534 acres of land from Single Family Residential 1 'R-1' to Neighborhood Commercial 'NC', on property located 503 N. Burleson Street (Lots 15, 16 and 17), in Hays County, Texas. (Julieta Montes, Z-15-003)." However, Ms. Montes has withdrawn her application for this rezoning so the council should take no action on the agenda item.
I reached out to both Ms. Montes and the city to find out why she had withdrawn her request. I specifically wondered whether some kind of deal had been struck that would have allowed her to operate her daycare facility without going through a zoning change. I never heard back from Ms. Montes, but the city’s Director of Community Development Howard J. Koontz told me:
"No arrangement has been made between Ms. Montes and the city, but her withdrawal is related to an expected future development agreement.
"Basically, she is not a developer and not well-versed in the development process," Koontz said "For that reason she has been a little overwhelmed by the process, and specifically the objections to her proposal as presented thus far. In light of the fact that her Public Hearing is on Tuesday night, she didn't have enough time to revise and amend her application as much as she and staff felt was necessary.
"So before her right to re-apply is suspended for 12 months, she has chosen to rescind her current application," the director continued. "Once the time constraint of the approval process has been suspended, she'll meet with us here in City Hall to discuss the potential for a development agreement to better tailor her request to the property in question. I expect she'll re-apply with a more comprehensive application sometime in later July or August would be my guess, but I have no actual knowledge of her schedule going forward."
A public "thank-you" to Koontz for his prompt and candid response.
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