Hondo Anvil Herald
By Rosanne Fohn, Anvil Herald Reporter
August 24. 2023

Hondo Creek Farms Subdivision has offered to pay for new city-owned water storage tanks and enlarged sewer treatment facilities in exchange for the city’s providing of water and sewer services, Public Works Director Rene Saenz told the Hondo City Council at the Aug. 14 meeting.

Saenz said more research is needed before council could consider voting on the proposal, but the subdivision’s offer includes constructing a 750,000-gallon elevated water tank, a 500,000-gallon water tank on the ground and a chlorination system.

For sewer infrastructure, it offers to enlarge the Kollman Oaks lift station to accommodate both Kollman Oaks and Hondo Creek Farms, to install a gravity-flow main to go under U.S. Highway 90 to the sewer plant, and to expand the sewer plant itself to accommodate the increased needs resulting from Hondo Creek Farms.

All of these improvements would be provided at no cost to the city. Saenz said the offer is attractive because the city’s water and sewer system is already at maximum capacity, and for the city to build all of this infrastructure itself would require 20 years of debt service.

At least three council members objected to the proposal based on previous experiences with the developer.

Interim City Manager Robert Herrera reminded council that this discussion was for information only at this point. He said the subdivision has several things to take care of before the matter could be considered by council.

Although HCF has completed its permit application for the Texas Commission on Environment Quality, the TCEQ has not yet approved it. In addition, the subdivision plans to submit a petition to the city to remove itself from the Hondo’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, in accordance with Senate Bill 2038 that becomes effective Sept. 1.

Herrera said, “Let’s not lose sight of what you have heard tonight. What’s in front of us is, there are no decisions being made on whether the city can provide water. No decisions on whether the city can provide sewer. The question is, the owner of HCF has reached out to city staff and they’ve said, ‘Look, would the city be interested?’

“We, the staff, need a little bit more time to see if we have the capability. If we don’t have the capability, then the answer is we can’t provide the service and we’ll come to the council and make that recommendation. If the answer is (that) we think we can provide maybe one or two of the services, then we will come back and say that we think we can afford to provide the service if certain things are met,” Herrera explained. “We don’t have those answers for you tonight, but part of the protocol is, from a developer outside your city to ask the question: Is the city willing to provide service? And we cannot give that answer tonight. We will, if you will give us a little more time to come back to you.”

Place 1 Councilman Brett Williams said, “So it sounds like it’s just a formality that they have to come to the city first. We say yes or no, and if we say no, they go off and do their own thing, but it still looks like they’re going the county route. The (subdivision) layout we’re looking at right now is awful, so I don’t even know why we’re talking about this.”

Mayor John McAnelly said, “I just want to remind us that we no longer have any say over that land.” (The city had voted at an earlier meeting not to participate in a tax increment reinvestment zone, which would have given the council more say over the development. The TIRZ is led by Medina County.) “So, why don’t they just go ahead and do whatever they are going to do with that land?”

Place 5 Councilman John Villa said. He had already pointed out that he thought the developer was coming to the city because he thought the TCEQ permit would not be granted. McAnelly pointed out that if Hondo provides these services, the developer would not need the permit.

Place 2 Councilman Bobby Vela said, “I think the bigger picture is that the city has the opportunity to gain infrastructure, and if we gain the infrastructure we can charge on that infrastructure and that’s income to the city. That is the bottom line.”

“And that would be a benefit to the city,” Williams commented.

“And if they’re going to do it anyway, maybe we should listen.”

Vela added, “I just think this agenda item is premature and should have been handled in executive session.”