Wednesday, June 26, 2024
The Granbury City Council voted unanimously at its regular meeting Tuesday night to extend a development ban within the central and western corporate city limits and extraterritorial jurisdiction.
The stay is connected to a delay in building a second wastewater treatment plant in the eastern part of the city, where there has been substantial growth and more development is planned.
A development moratorium was enacted in that part of town in December 2020 when problems first arose with the planned wastewater treatment plant, but last October city officials essentially made the building freeze city-wide.
They did so because of growth in other parts of the city and because the current wastewater treatment plant was reaching capacity. Although upgrades are currently being made to that facility, city officials say that its’ capacity cannot be expanded.
The development embargo impacting the central and western parts of the city was to last for 120 days, and that’s what the council extended this week.
The extension brings that moratorium in line with the development ban on the east side of town. Both will expire at the same time on Oct. 4.
The city has been hindered in obtaining a permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for a new wastewater treatment plant at 3121 Old Granbury Road because of opposition from area residents and business owners.
TCEQ commissioners sent the dispute to the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) for a contested case hearing. Those processes are underway, and the administrative law judge has not yet made a recommendation to TCEQ commissioners.
Regardless of the judge’s recommendation, the state agency’s commissioners will make the final decision on whether to issue the permit.
The development prohibition does not mean that all construction has been halted. It does not apply to projects that had already been approved or were going through the city’s permitting processes at the time of implementation.
