Travis County Commissioners unanimously approved March 29 removing previous building requirements on an 8-acre property in West Austin that was zoned for a single office in 1977 and allowed a new plan for five residential homes to take its place.

According to Texas Local Government Code, the owner of a tract of residential land has to have a set of building requirements, also called a plat. This includes a map of the proposed site of construction and a document describing water and sewer services.

Paul Christen, one of the owners and the developer of the 8-acre property located at 315 N. Tumbleweed Trail, Austin, requested the change for the property, which is part of the unincorporated land within 5 miles of Austin city limits, called extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ.

The matter came under prolonged discussion when a neighbor who shares the eastern border with the entire length of the property and his attorney showed concern about the drainage and erosion this change will bring to his property that is at a lower level. He said, unlike the old plat, the new one does not have a waterway.

Travis County Division Director Anna Bowlin said the land development code has changed since 1977 when the original plat was made, but the new plat meets the code. It also has a drainage easement and will have to comply with the mandates included in House Bill 3167, such as the type of drainage structures on-site to allow for a 100-year storm event and release of water in the same way at the subdivision boundary that it would predevelopment.


“The county, in an abundance of caution, adopted Atlas 14 as our guideline so that we can prevent new developments from being built in the floodplain for not having adequate flood protection. So I think the county is doing the absolute right thing, erring on the side of caution with regard to future residents of an area,” Precinct 2 Commissioner Brigid Shea said.

Atlas 14 is the recent rainfall study for the state of Texas conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“I have to trust our process, our rules, the code [and] the engineers. This is not over. I don't see any reason for me not to vote to allow the plat to be vacated, but we have to be diligent and hold you accountable for your actions going forward,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Ann Howard said to Christen.

Shea said the county will continue monitoring the situation.


“We will be watching this, and certainly the downstream owner has a lot of rights and has a right in an expectation to be protected,” Shea said.