Bee Cave City Council Sept. 26 approved rezoning of a 94-acre parcel of agricultural land to allow for a low-density rural housing development off Hamilton Pool Road to be called Signal Hill Estates.
Council agreed to the development a month after finalizing the annexation one of the city’s last large lots. The planned development agreement lays out 61 home sites of an acre or more on the north side of Hamilton Pool Road bordered by the Bella Colinas subdivision to the west and Terra Colinas to its north, both of which are located in Bee Cave’s extra-territorial jurisdiction.
A second, 34-acre parcel on the south side of the road is also now zoned for single family homes, although no development is planned at this time, city staff said at the meeting.
The property owner, the Grumbles family, first proposed a zoning change for the full 128 acres in 2013, subject to submittal of a development plan in 2016. That plan triggered the city’s annexation process which City Council formally approved at its Sept. 12 meeting [see Annexation protections sidebar].
Annexation allows a developer to offer municipal police and fire service as well as ensure building codes are met. Falling under city jurisdiction and its planning and zoning rules, Signal Hill Estates will have access to solid waste removal and water and sewer services.
City staff noted the revised land use now falls within Bee Cave’s comprehensive plan and conforms with the future land use map. But after the Grumbles family and its developer submitted the application for the single-family project in 2016, council called for revisions.
In January 2017, City Council expressed concerns about the project including density [127 homes were originally planned, city documents show] and setback requests that were contrary to the city’s comprehensive plan. The original setbacks would have impeded the water quality buffer zone and the required maintenance of it, and septic fields in the vegetated buffer. Council denied the application, prompting the Grumbles family to submit the updated plan for 61 home sites that was approved Sept. 26.
Texas land owner protection from annexations
State law mandates that as part of the annexation process, a municipality offer affected landowners such as the Grumbles family who have agricultural exemptions through the local taxing authority, the opportunity to execute a development agreement in lieu of being annexed immediately.
The development agreement protects the landowner's agricultural activities related to their tax exemption and keeps the property outside City limits until such time as the land owner applies for a development permit that would change the use on the subject property. The Grumbles family elected to execute such an agreement resulting in the Signal Hills Estates project.
– Source: City of Bee Cave
