West Lake Hills City Council met Wednesday night and discussed the ongoing Bee Caves Road expansion project as well as the now-concluded special legislative session.

Bee Caves Road construction timeline updated

After meeting with representatives from the Texas Department of Transportation regarding Bee Caves construction Wednesday morning, City Administrator Robert Wood reported to City Council that the project’s estimated completion has been pushed back to summer 2019.

“Originally when TxDOT started the project, its target completion date was February 2019,” he said. “They’ve pushed it back somewhere between four to six months, and the main reason is that there have been a lot of challenges with utilities.”

All utility work, which was scheduled to be completed last fall, should be completed by the end of September, Wood said.

“[The delay] is probably 80 percent related to the utilities,” he said. “If you look at transportation projects across the state, this is happening almost everywhere.”

Tree-removal legislation discussed

After the conclusion of the special legislative session, Wood said the only signed bill that should affect West Lake Hills is House Bill 7, also known as the tree-removal bill. He said City Council will have to slightly amend its current tree ordinance to match the new state statute before it goes into effect Dec. 1.

“It is not going to be a major overhaul at all,” Wood said.

The bill requires cities that charge tree-removal fees to allow residents to plant replacement trees in lieu of the fee, something West Lake Hills already offers, he said.

“For some cities that’s going to be a really big deal because when they see someone cut down a tree they look for dollars,” he said. “In our case the money is a secondary issue. We don’t get much money from tree mitigation because we would much rather have replacement trees planted.”

The city will, however, have to change its ordinance regarding the size of a tree that can be used as a replacement. The state law will allow trees with a minimum of a 2-inch diameter to be part of a mitigation plan, but the city allows trees with a diameter of 3 inches or greater to be used.

“It’s doesn’t change the total amount of inches someone is replacing, but it does allow for 2-inch trees,” Wood said.