New Braunfels Utilities is looking to modify its service area.
The New Braunfels Utilities board of trustees voted April 30 to submit an application to the state’s Public Utility Commission decertifying its water Certificate of Convenience and Necessity, or CCN, for three undeveloped properties.
A CCN is an area where a utility is obligated to provide water and wastewater services. The action, which will ultimately be reviewed and decided on by the state's PUC, does not affect current customers, and water service rates remain unchanged, according to a news release.
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Two of the properties are located west of FM 306 and will be located within Comal County’s Municipal Utility District, or MUD, No. 5. Those properties would be served by the MUD, which is a 621-acre district north of New Braunfels.
MUDs are special-purpose districts created by the state, used by developers to fund the upfront costs of building new communities in unincorporated areas—land outside city limits that isn’t governed by a municipal government, according to the Texas Municipal League.
The third property is a 97.68-acre tract northeast of Cambridge Drive near the River Chase area.
NBU Chief Executive Officer Ryan Kelso said most of the area on the north side of town is over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone, which is one of the reasons the board is behind the decision.
Kelso said the attitude of the Texas legislature over the last couple of sessions has been to remove local control in various areas—one of them being the authority of cities.
“If the city’s not [going to] grow into that extraterritorial jurisdiction because they can no longer involuntarily annex property and developers can now remove themselves by petition from the ETJ, we, as the municipally owned utility, probably should not extend ourselves into that area because it’s probably never [going to] be the city,” he said.
Extending water service to undeveloped areas also requires investment in new pipelines, storage and treatment capacity. By focusing service within its planned footprint, NBU officials are helping ensure “growth pays for growth,” the news release states.
“We’re focusing on areas where we can serve customers reliably and efficiently, while avoiding unexpected infrastructure expansions that could place additional costs on the people we already serve,” Kelso said in the release.
