Construction site runoff requires MOU with landowner
City policy regarding stormwater runoff from new construction led the Hays County Commissioners Court to approve a memorandum of understanding with the owners of property adjacent to the site of a new public safety building that has yet to be built.
“We realized we had to do some additional and grading work to achieve the city’s no-rise provision,” Mark Kennedy, the county’s general counsel, explained to the commissioners at their meeting Tuesday. “The rule effectively says stormwater flow off the property has to be the same as its pre-development condition.”
The public safety building is to be constructed adjacent to the Hays County Government Center on Stagecoach Road. The building’s construction will affect property owned by Carson Select Investments. Project manager Codi Newsom said that new information discovered after the public safety building was designed led to the realization that more drainage work is required. Even with more drainage work, the public safety building will still have an effect on the Carsons’ property, but Newsom said, “The channel and the excavation do decrease that impact.”
To get a permit to go ahead with the work, the county must have written consent from the Carsons allowing the public safety building project to affect their property. The memorandum of understanding between the county and the Carsons includes the provision of that letter and the right of entry onto the Carsons’ property to do the drainage work. Once the Carsons submit the letter of consent to the city, the city will continue the permitting process to let the county begin construction. Newsom said she hopes to receive a permit before Thanksgiving, or at least before the end of the month.
The new public safety building will be a 69,482-square-foot facility located northeast of the Hays County Government Center.
In other business Tuesday, the commissioners court approved a resolution asking the Texas Department of Transportation to initiate the development of a multi-jurisdictional agreement with Hays County, the city of Buda and the city of Niederwald to outline the process for removing parts of the existing Farm to Market Road 2001 from the state’s highway system and adding portions of the proposed realigned FM 2001 to the state highway system. For sections of the farm-to-market road east of Interstate 35 to be removed from the state system, the county and cities of Buda and Niederwald will need to pass resolutions and take jurisdiction over stretches of the road.
