The details
During a Dec. 9 meeting, Bastrop City Council approved a master transfer agreement between the Hunters Crossing Local Government Corporation, the Hunters Crossing Homeowner’s Association and the city of Bastrop.
The master transfer agreement will transfer lots 16 and 30—which contain property, such as trails, green space, sports fields, a pool, a basketball court, other play areas, drainage pathways and detention ponds—from the Hunters Crossing Local Government Corporation to the city of Bastrop.
Bastrop will now be responsible for maintenance of these spaces, according to city documents.
Some background
The city established the Hunters Crossing PID in 2001 to fund certain public improvement projects—such as roads, parks, landscaping and utilities—through capital assessments as well as operations and maintenance assessments on property owners.
It marked the first of its kind in Texas, according to city documents.
“The city acts, for a lack of a better term, as a co-signer, because the money is borrowed on our faith and good credit, knowing that we’re going to collect assessments that are due to pay off this particular PID,” Bastrop City Manager Sylvia Carrillo-Trevino said during a July 22 meeting.
However, the Hunters Crossing HOA, she emphasized, has failed to maintain its obligations.
“Those expenses are ... transferred to the residential properties within Hunters Crossing subdivision as part of their public improvement assessment, which means a neverending cycle of payments,” Carrillo-Trevino said during the Dec. 9 meeting. “Currently, the initial property assessments for the residents should end in 2026.”
The outlook
Audrey Guthrie, counsel for the Hunters Crossing Local Government Corporation, noted that the master transfer agreement is simply divesting the Hunters Crossing Local Government Corporation of its property.
“It does not address the underlying issue that the PID still has capital debt,” she told Bastrop City Council. “So you can’t fully dissolve the PID. They have to pay off that debt beforehand.”
That figure is approximately $3.2 million, Carrillo-Trevino said.
Carrillo-Trevino previously discussed the importance of the debt being paid off before dissolution.
“We could put it to a vote,” she said. “The property owners are going to say, ‘Great, I don’t have an assessment anymore. Do away with it.' But then that debt is spread among [Bastrop’s approximately] 14,000 residents.”
Notable quote
“The Hunters Crossing Local Government Corporation has been, I think, the bane of my existence since I arrived in Bastrop,” Carrillo-Trevino said. “It is the gift that just doesn't stop giving.”
