Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, January 4, 2011,
Item 4
>> number four is to consider and take appropriate action on an exception from section 82.213, Travis County code, relating to water availability for subdivisions using water from the trinity aquifer for the revised plat of lots 24, 25-a, 25-b and 26, big bee creek subdivision in precinct three.
>> good morning, anna bolin, Travis County tnr.
the purpose of this variance is we have received an inquiry from this proposed applicant to reduce -- go from four lots to two lots.
these lots currently are on well and the end result would be two lots would not be on wells that are currently platted.
we recommend this.
>> mr. Priest?
>> I was just wondering how this relates to -- since this is on the revised -- where you put the plat note on the land for the development of it, this is the second time that we've had such an item that's come with the county's recommendation to give a variance to your previous action.
that's correct, right?
>> I believe so.
>> yes.
>> and so I was wondering -- just questioning why the county would do this since it is such a hardship on landowners and their property value when it would seem or appear that the possibilities for a variance would be add infinitum and this seems like a lot of waste of county resources to have everybody come up here when it doesn't appear that there would ever be a scenario where the county wouldn't approve it or even if they did not approve it that the county would have any standing in such a matter?
I’d like to see if court would like to address that.
>> well, in this case four lots with four wells have been approved.
>> that's correct.
four lots that have the capacity to have four individual wells have been approved.
>> and that action was taken before we took action.
>> yes, sir.
>> and the property owner, though, is now saying instead of four lots, I want to change that to two lots.
so we see that as being a reduction of 50% of what the property owner could legally do.
that's why it makes sense to me.
>> this is a request by the property owner.
it's not something that we're doing.
>> I realize that.
>> and the only reason the wells are mentioned is because there is a moratorium in place that that's academic actually because it's a reduction in the number of wells, but his reason for requesting this was because he had to go through our county process to reduce it from four lots to two lots, which is what he wanted.
>> I was just speaking to the process of property owners having to come and do this where previously they didn't have to.
>> the property owner would not have to with an already approved plat.
the issue here was that it's a substantive change, but it's a change reducing the load on the trinity aquifer.
so -- we've only had two requests for variance to the moratorium.
that's not a huge number.
and I can't recall the issue -- the other one was a reduced load on the aquifer as well, wasn't it?
>> the other one if I’m remembering correctly was they were electing to do -- do like a larger than 10-acre tract and that was something that could have otherwise been through the exemption process.
but given the way they wanted to divide up their 20 acres, they wanted one of the lots smaller, so they were agreeing to the same net overall effect.
>> so in both instances it was a circumstance where the property owner's desire actually improved the circumstances for a load on the trinity aquifer, so there was no -- it was within the spirit of the moratorium, even though it technically fell under it.
>> have y'all chosen the people that will be reviewing this moratorium?
>> not yet.
>> we're working on that.
>> thank you.
>> by the way, any property owner can request a variance.
it doesn't mean it will be granted, but you have a right to request.
>> that's correct.
and we get variance requests on a whole host of topics from our regs.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion on the motion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, January, 2011 12:12 PM
