BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – Attorneys alerted the Scenic Loop-Helotes Creek Alliance (SL-HCA) this week that state regulators did not act on the nonprofit’s request for a new hearing regarding a controversial housing development.
The attorneys represented the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance and the City of Grey Forest, according to the nonprofit. The city and the aquifer alliance requested the rehearing in a 115-page motion filed on Nov. 24.
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The SL-HCA had hoped its request, with the backing of several Bexar County lawmakers, would be enough to convince the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to reconsider its issuing of a wastewater permit for the Lennar Corporation-funded Guajolote Ranch housing development in northwest Bexar County.
The TCEQ had until Dec. 22 to respond to the SL-HCA’s request. Because the TCEQ did not respond to the request in any way, its original decision to allow the permit remains.
KSAT has covered neighbors’ concerns about the project for nearly two years. In a Friday news release, the nonprofit vowed that its fight is “not over.”
“We intend to support an appeal to state district court by the end of January,” the news release stated, in part. “And as several San Antonio city council members, county commissioners and state legislators have affirmed the importance of local control, no matter how TCEQ fails us, we are vigorously fighting a proposed municipal utility district (MUD) for Guajolote Ranch.”
The City of San Antonio’s Planning Commission will have a discussion scheduled at 9 a.m. on Jan. 16 regarding the housing development’s financial model. The nonprofit said it also expects a City Council vote on that model on Feb. 5.
The proposed development would create approximately 3,000 homes on 1,100 acres of land, located north of Grey Forest.
On Dec. 16, Bexar County commissioners approved a resolution that asked the TCEQ to reconsider its approval of Guajolote Ranch’s wastewater permit.
At the time, the commissioners cited concerns over “public health, environmental protection and regulatory integrity” in the resolution.
“Approving a single wastewater permit should not endanger the water of millions of families across South Texas,” the commissioners court wrote.
State Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, also entered the fray last month when she sent a letter urging the TCEQ to deny the wastewater permit.
More recent Guajolote Ranch development coverage on KSAT: