Hays Project Threatens Aquifer, Pressures Small Town

The proposed location of the 200-plus single-family home development (Art by The Austin Chronicle)

Yet another planned development threatens the Edwards Aquifer, this time centering on the small city of Hays in the county of the same name. Hays Commons, a 271-unit housing development at the intersection of SH 45 SW and FM 1626, would more than double the impervious cover allowed by Save Our Springs ordinance standards (35% as opposed to 15%), and proposes mostly 1/4- and 1/3-acre lots, flouting the half-acre minimum lot size required by SOS. (Though those lot sizes still mean expensive homes.) The developers also plan to drill wells into the Trinity Aquifer, which is currently at emergency drought levels, and dispose of treated wastewater near Little Bear Creek and a tributary – one of the streams that flows to the aquifer and eventually to Barton Springs.

The northern half of Hays Commons would fall in Austin's extraterritorial jurisdiction, making it partially subject to SOS, while the southern half is in Hays' ETJ. This is not the first time the development has come around, as in 2013 the five-person Hays city council, representing the roughly 200 residents of Hays, signed an agreement with the previous developer, Walters South­west, which then handed the project to the current MileStone Community Builders. The Hays council will vote on the new proposed agreement on Nov. 14, but as battles with the community came to a head in a three-hour public work session last Thurs­day, MileStone may opt for alternate paths forward without council approval.

One of these is to petition the City of Austin for water/wastewater, though with the smaller-than-regulation lot sizes, Austin is unlikely to approve. Another is to petition for a Municipal Utility District through the Texas Com­mis­sion on Environmental Quality, which would allow them to add a surcharge to each unit for water/wastewater and skirt SOS regulations.

MileStone is currently trying to get Hays council to agree voluntarily to a MUD, though it's not looking good: Last week's hearing was "antagonistic and agitated," according to Mike Clifford with the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, which is opposing the development. During the hearing MileStone's lawyer mentioned using the previous 2013 agreement as precedent, though it only included 44 one-acre lots, while the new one (though still changing) includes more smaller lots, and would be harder to push through contested case hearings if the affected downstream parties – including the city of Austin, with its SOS ordinance – get involved.

"They spent a year trying to work the Hays city council, because I think it would be much easier if they had approved this," says Clifford. "But MileStone seems to think that they can go to the TCEQ and get approval … because they have that previous agreement. Whether that's true or not, who knows. The TCEQ [is a] very opaque organization." MileStone can also ask the Texas Legislature to create a special district for the MUD during the upcoming 2023 session, which GEAA says it will be tracking.

One of the most analogous planned developments of the last few years in the aquifer recharge zone, Jeremiah Ventures, fought for 6½ years and ended up selling to the city of Austin as water quality protection land. Another MileStone development plan on the table now, the 775-acre Persimmon project that would cross Buda and Austin ETJs, was tabled by the Buda city council last week, following weeks of contentious public meetings. Lydia Bryan-Valdez, a former Hays council member whose term expired in May, says when she was on the dais the process of negotiation with the developer was not transparent, and that their lawyer has tried to use "scare tactics" to convince council to push through the creation of the MUD. "It's very much a David and Goliath situation." Neither Hays Mayor Billy Maphies nor MileStone responded to interview requests.

If Hays city council votes no next month, the community of Hays, GEAA, Sierra Club, and other prominent environmental orgs are committed to fighting the MUD. "There is simply no safe way to irrigate treated sewage on the Barton Springs portion of the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone," said SOS Executive Director Bill Bunch in a press release.