AUSTIN, Texas — In a tight room, environmental activists and some City of Hays community members prayed over their drinking water as they continued to fight the proposed 498-acre mixed-use project called Hays Commons.
Located at the corner of FM 1626 and State Highway 45, the project site is in both Travis and Hays counties, with a portion of the land residing in the city of Austin’s Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ).
The proposed development would add 2,200 residents, including approximately 700 residential homesites, 10 acres of neighborhood commercial and vast parks and open spaces.
It’ll be on the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone, which has sparked pollution concerns for neighbors like Carol Pennington. Like many in the rural small town, she uses wells fed by the aquifer. It also feeds Barton Springs.
“The more that is built over the recharge zone, the less water gets into the aquifer, which means we have less water to drink,” said Pennington.
Pennington said they are already fighting drought issues.
The group was originally fighting the Milestone Community Builders plan to build a wastewater treatment plant in Hays, but after much pushback, Milestone CEO Garett Martin said they are now voluntarily asking the city of Austin to use its water and wastewater facilities. That would require them to install pipes to Hays.
“Significantly better than the alternatives and will enable the city of Austin to subject the entirety of the site to this Save Our Springs Ordinance,” said Martin. “We’re voluntarily subjecting the projects to those environmental regulations.”
The Save Our Springs Ordinance, or SOS, is set in place to protect the water quality of the Edwards Aquifer and Barton Springs. It was adopted by the city of Austin in 1992 to protect the EARZ from groundwater contamination, with a strict 15% impervious cover limitation, based on recommendations by karst experts.
On Tuesday, the city planning commission is set to decide if they should amend the rule for this partnership. The developer is asking to increase the impervious cover, which includes roads and sidewalks, from 15% to 25%, allowing even more homes to be built. Martin said allowing them to make more homes would lower the price of the homes.
Bobby Levinski, a lawyer for Save Our Springs, said it would be a big mistake for the city of Austin to approve this amendment.
“An unprecedented amendment,” said Levinski. “It has an enormous impact on the recharge zone. Extending water and wastewater is going to be a catalyst for sprawl in an area that has very few environmental protections left.”
Levinski added, “If they start amending the ordnance now for these properties how is Austin going to hold the line and protect an area where they’ve invested millions of dollars to protect?”
Martin emphasized that they are voluntarily working with the city.
Part of the property used to be part of Hays, but the developers disannexed. They said if the city of Austin doesn’t agree, the next route would be to disannex from Austin as well. That would allow them to benefit from Senate Bill 2038, which went into effect on Sept. 1, 2023, allowing property owners like Milestone to disannex from a city’s ETJ. That means the developer no longer needs to follow city environmental regulations but more lax county and state ones.
Martin said this would allow the project to possibly revert back to the original plan – a move he said a lot of other developers are taking.
It’s important to note that City of Hays Mayor Pro Tem Lydia Bryan-Valdez and Mayor Harvey Davis said this new development would not benefit the community and are concerned about the environmental repercussions.