Officials worked with developers over 200 hours
GEORGETOWN — After hours of meetings and even compromises with builders, the Williamson County Commissioners Court has proposed a sweeping set of added regulations related to the construction of large subdivisions.
Officials said the new rules are needed to get a handle on brisk residential growth, much of it spurred by new businesses including Taylor’s semiconductor factory under construction by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
The proposed amendments to the Williamson County Subdivision Regulations were introduced at this week’s Commissioners Court meeting March 4.
Among the preferred changes are revamped regulations on turn lanes based on traffic-impact analysis, watertreatment safeguards and requirements related to flood plain studies.
County Engineer Adam Boatright outlined the proposed amendments. He was joined by David Glenn, senior director of government regulations at the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin, who was invited to provide added insight.
While no action was taken, commissioners voiced approval of the effort.
“Your leadership on this issue over the last year would be a wonderful example for every county in Texas to take up and learn from,” Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell said.
Traffic-impact analysis would drive turn-lane construction
Boatright cited rapid growth and vehicle increases as reasons to compel developers to provide traffic-impact analysis determining turn-lane construction.
“These are things that we have not had as part of our rules in the past,” Boatright said.
“As everyone knows, we’re a booming area and development is very rapid. For public health and safety, we really need to include a turn lane and TIA (traffic impact analysis) requirement as part of our subdivision requirements.”
The requirement wouldn’t apply to every subdivision, he noted.
“Not each and every development will trigger these requirements. It’s the larger developments. The very small developments will not trigger these requirements,” he said. “But the larger developments will … be required to provide necessary safety improvements to address any impacts due to their development.”
Water-related regulation changes trickle in
Additional requirements for water and wastewater also are being mulled.
“As water continues to be a challenge around the county, we’re asking for firm, written commitments from the water providers for these proposed subdivisions,” Boatright said.
Should offsite construction related to water/wastewater be needed, bonding of such construction would be required prior to approval of a final plat, Boatright said.
In terms of conducting flood plain studies, a proposed regulation would allow the use of county data – collectively dubbed the Atlas 14 Floodplain Mapping Study – eliminating the need for smaller developments to secure the costly services of a private engineer, Boatright said.
Williamson County launched Atlas 14 in spring 2021 to update rainfall data for the region, model streams and waterways and identify areas of flood exposure.
The county’s data is an offshoot of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration effort compiling and analyzing historical rainfall records to produce updated precipitation frequency estimates across the country, county officials said in a previous advisory.
Commonly known as NOAA Atlas 14, rainfall data was provided to Texas in 2018. The following year, the Legislature directed the Texas Water Development Board to identify areas of flood risk and potential mitigation measures.
“Due to the availability of the county’s Atlas 14 flood plain study, many developments will be able to utilize our data going forward once that study is completely final, which is really close,” the county engineer said. “This will be a benefit to many developments, especially the smaller – what sometimes we refer to as the mom-and-pop – subdivisions.”
Proposed rules come after 200 hours of meetings
Another proposed regulation relates to an agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation in identifying transportation corridors that will be documented within the revamped county rules.
Moreover, new county regulations provide oversight on the development of municipal utility districts – socalled MUDs – as it relates to maintenance of subdivision roads within those special districts.
The proposals were the culmination of a months-long process involving various stakeholders and multiple meetings, Boatright said. Officials were first alerted to proposed “redline amendments” to subdivision regulations in November via the county website for review and comment, followed with conversations with each of the 70 people submitting input and 16 meetings with various stakeholders.
All told, the county engineer said, some 200 hours were devoted to the outreach effort.
Glenn represented some stakeholders invested in the proposed changes. He thanked Boatright and other county officials for their willingness to compromise and reach consensus.
“There was a lot of concern when this first came out, but he (Boatright) was very receptive to our concerns,” Glenn said. “We had many meetings where we found a lot of compromises that worked very well – a flexibility we don’t get in other counties.”
Precinct 4 County Commissioner Russ Boles pointed to the need for bolstered regulations amid brisk county growth.
“More and more developers are choosing to develop those homes in the county more than ever before – more than we have contemplated in the past. What used to be just a little subdivision development in the county has turned into a lot,” he said. “So we have to get a little better, put more guards into it, because it’s gone beyond what we typically have seen.”
