The West Austin Business Park is an ongoing development located within Sweetwater off Hwy. 71. With its 80 18-wheeler bays, the 269,959-square-foot site is expected to generate 890 trips per day in its 24-hour, 7-day-a-week operation, according to the court filing and county documents.
Eppright Homes is a homebuilder for Madrone Canyon, a single-family residential subdivision with 110 homes abutting the distribution center. In a petition filed Sept. 27 in the 200th District Court, Eppright joined Bee Cave as a plaintiff on the case initially filed mid-August, according to the lawsuit.
Within the text, Eppright said that developer Velocis “staged a cover up” for the development to the Madrone Canyon Homeowners Association with renderings that “misrepresented the size and design of the complex, and then built without waiting for contractually and statutorily required permission from the [city].”
"Once construction began, Eppright Homes’ customers reached out for help, and sales to new residents in Madrone Canyon immediately came to a full stop," Eppright stated in the lawsuit.
- Significantly increase traffic through the community
- Impact safety on residential streets
- Substantially impact the use, enjoyment and value of Eppright’s property
- Cause unreasonable discomfort and annoyance for residents due to noise, gasses, dusts, odors and more
“The harm [the defendants] are causing is anything but slight,” the lawsuit from Eppright states. “It is looming over and intruding into [the plaintiffs’] properties day and night and it is poised to get much worse.”
Developer Velocis declined to comment on the newest filing, and homebuilder Eppright Homes did not respond for comment as of press time.
Diving in deeper
The WABP is located on the Eastland Tract, which is part of the Sweetwater development off Hwy. 71. The development agreement for the Eastland Tract was approved in 2015 by the city, outlining residential, commercial and office space development for the 403-acre lot, according to city documents.
This deal was originally signed with WS-COS, or Wheelock, who then sold 23 acres of the land to Dallas-based Velocis in 2023, according to the lawsuit. The site is located in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, a boundary established in the 1960s to allow cities to grow through annexation of land contiguous with city boundaries, according to Texas statues. One benefit of the plan for developers was that it provided predictability in regards to annexation, Bee Cave Director of Communications Crystal Cotti said.
“Both sides agreed that the city of Bee Cave wouldn’t annex this area into its city limits, and in exchange, the developers would follow the development agreement to ensure that anything that was built in this area would be compatible and complementary,” Cotti said.
Original stipulations of the agreement required the developer to commit three individuals to an internal Development Review Committee, which would review plans for the development. At the same time plans were received by the committee, the city was to receive those plans—that didn’t happen, Cotti said.
“The city never received a site plan,” Cotti said. “That basic construction document was never submitted. It was never taken before City Council, so there was never an opportunity to review construction documents or to approve them.”
In addition to informing the city of plans, the developer was required to seek permitting through the city for certain aspects of the development, such as light, noise, odor and nonpoint source pollution, according to the development agreement. Cotti said that didn’t happen, either.
With that in mind, Cotti said the city is pursuing this because the city believes there’s been a substantial breach of contract on part of the developers.
“Chief among concerns are the safety and the well-being of residents in the community of Madrone Canyon and Sweetwater as a whole because those residential streets were never designed to withstand this volume of 18-wheeler traffic,” Cotti said.
The other side
Although Velocis declined to comment on the most recent updates in the case as of press time, Community Impact previously reported that Velocis said the company "strongly believes it will prevail if forced to litigate the [city of Bee Cave's] claims."
Additionally, in its Aug. 23 response to the initial lawsuit, Velocis stated the company followed all notice requirements outlined within the development agreement, and pointed to a Nov. 29 post-closing agreement that was emailed to former city officials following Velocis' purchase of the land.
The agreement states that within 36 months after the closing, "the purchaser shall construct a distribution center, fulfillment center, or light-industrial warehouse facility."
While the city said the post-closing agreement was received, the city stated in a Sept. 20 petition that the timing and method of notification regarding a change in Wheelock’s rights and obligations for the Eastland Tract went against the development agreement as well. The city’s Sept. 20 filing stated that the city received the notice via email three weeks after it happened, while the development agreement stipulated that any changes should be hand-delivered or mailed to the city at least 15 days from the date of the amendment.
Velocis also said that the distribution center was built to be complementary to the surrounding area, adding that the company provided notice to the neighboring Madrone Canyon subdivision in February.
However, previous Community Impact reporting includes another Madrone Canyon homebuilder, Ames Design Build President Grant Ames, who said "the Madrone Canyon neighborhood and other affected neighborhoods know there's much more to the story than the response that was given by Velocis.”
What’s next
A date for a court hearing has not been set as of press time.
