Code amendment drafts on blasting in city limits and prefabricated sheds were brought to the West Lake Hills City Council for consideration at the Feb. 28 meeting.

The current city code is written to require individuals to approach the City Council to get a blasting permit, City Administrator Robert Wood said.

Years ago, using dynamite was a common way to excavate property, Wood said. Over time, safer and more efficient equipment was developed.

“In the eleven years I’ve been here I’ve never had a blasting permit request,” Wood said. “We also probably don’t want to have blasting going on in the city, so this (code amendment) will take out all the language about how the permit process works and replace it with a statement saying ‘no blasting in the city.”

The Council voted unanimously in favor of changing the amendment to state no blasting allowed in the city.

They also voted in favor of amending an ordinance that forbids residents to put prefabricated or modular sheds on their property.

Wood said residents have asked why they can build a shed on site but can’t purchase a pre-made structure at Lowes or Home Depot, for example.

“There was a discussion at one point about prefabricated houses, which Council did not like,” Wood said of why the ordinance exists. “In the past, pre-made homes were associated with poor quality construction, but there have been changes in the industry, so that’s something we might need to talk about at some point.”

Wood said for now, this limited step would allow only sheds to be prefabricated.

In other meeting news, West Lake Hills Mayor Linda Anthony and Council members Brian Plunkett and Darin Walker were declared unopposed in the May 5 General Municipal Election.

Anthony has been Mayor since May 2013. Plunkett has been in Place 2 since May 2016 and Walker has been in Place 4 since May 2014.