On Tuesday, October 10th at 9:00 AM, the Blanco County Commissioners Court is scheduled to take up the matter of Preliminary approval of the Rockin' J Unit #4 subdivision plat request. All interested citizens who can make time in their schedule to attend this meeting are strongly encouraged to do so. The meeting will be held at the Blanco County Courthouse in Johnson City.
A bit of history may be helpful to understand the importance of this hearing.
As many citizens of the county and beyond recognize, the Rockin' J development has been underway for well over two years. The project was initially proposed to the elected officials of Blanco County in 2004.
At that time it was presented as being comprised of 4 "units" or stages of development.
The county has established a series of requirements for sub-divisions and approval of the associating platting of lots; Preserve Our Water representatives have reviewed all documents filed in connection with each submission by Rancho del Lago, Inc. in connection with the Rockin' J development.
The submissions for Unit 1, which received final approval in May, 2004, were comprehensive, detailed and, as best as could be determined, filed in a timely and proper matter.
The filings were substantial.
The record also contains letters from County Judge Bill Guthrie and Blanco-Pedernales Groundwater Conservation District General Manager Ron Fieseler (in his capacity as 'independent reviewer" for the Commissioners Court in matters relating to proof of water availability).
These letters outlined a series of questions and concerns on the part of each official. It appears that documentation
is present reflecting adequate response to each concern. In addition, a separate, independent hydrological assessment is present.
At the time of this submission in 2004, the water availability being certified was in support of approximately 350
potential homes.
In May of 2006 the sub division was granted Final Approval for Unit 3 of the development. That unit, it appears, combines the planned units 2 and 3 for a total of approximately 700 additional homes, bringing the development's total to 1050 lots.
A golf course and other amenities were also included in the submission for this stage of development.
Review of the submissions for this request revealed a dramatic difference.
Critical, required documents were not filed at the time the Commissioners Court issued its Preliminary approval. Those documents are required 30 days in advance of the Preliminary hearing.
The record reflects no formal action taken to waive those requirements. The water availability documents were, in fact, not filed until a matter of a few days prior to the hearing for Final approval, providing no opportunity for citizen review.
No independent review of the one page water availability submission was provided (as opposed to many, many pages of detail accompanying the original submission including two independent reviews).
In spite of these short comings the Unit 3 request was approved.
It is important to consider that the Unit 3 request necessitated a dramatic increase in the water demands. Not
only did Unit 3 almost triple the number of potential residents to be served, but also added the demands of a golf course which, by itself, is likely to require 72 million gallons of water per year.
We now come to the Unit 4 request, this for an approximate 400 additional lots.
These lots are much smaller - some approach one-tenth of an acre.
The same one page letter asserting water availability supports this request for a 40% increase in residences. Mr. Fieseler has provided a letter in support of approving the request by the developers.
On review of this letter, Preserve Our Water, Inc has noted numerous difficulties in its content. POW will submit a formal objection to granting Preliminary approval prior to the meeting Tuesday.
In addition, representatives of POW will address these and related concerns during the hearing.
Please try to attend this very important meeting.
If Blanco County is to have hope of managing its growth wisely, we must compel our officials to do a correct and
comprehensive job.
At this point in the process of the Rockin' J, it appears that those officials are continuing to fall well short of that goal.
