COMFORT, Texas – Roy Die and his Comfort neighbors started the year with good news.
For 14 months, Die and the neighbors pushed back and raised concerns about the proposed high-density development plans.
Home construction company Lennar had filed a permit request with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) in October 2024 to build a wastewater treatment plant to support the development of 1,100 homes on a property about five miles north of Comfort.
The following year, in December 2025, the company pulled that request. Die and his fellow neighbors later received a copy of the letter confirming the withdrawal.
The TCEQ website also showed that the application was withdrawn. Die sees it as a significant win for his community.
“We believe in sustainable development and this was not sustainable. That was talking about dumping (wastewater) on an entire town of Comfort three miles down the road with no increase in infrastructure,” Die said. “We’re a rural community, we don’t have the infrastructure to support that type of huge increase that quickly."
Die, and the neighbors pointed to health concerns about the treated wastewater being dumped into a creek and what that would mean for those who use well water and for wildlife in the creek.
Among other concerns, the community’s health, flood-control issues in Comfort and even an active pipeline along residents’ property.
Die continues to work with other groups in rural communities concerned about high-density development.
Kendall County Commissioner Chad Carpenter and Senator Donna Campbell commented on legislation that would protect communities in the future.
" If this comes into your community and you have water issues, which we did, get active early, get your local legislators involved, get your state legislators involved,“ he said. ”Find as many ways as you can to oppose it because once it goes in, you can’t take it back out."
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