Council presses pause on two projects

The Pflugerville City Council halted two city projects Jan. 24 after council members raised questions about the associated costs.

The two projects—the installation of electric vehicle charging stations and a parking lot at Pfennig Pfields—were pulled from a list of otherwise approved projects paid for by the city's General Capital Reserve fund at the Jan. 24 meeting.

The main concern expressed by council members was whether the projects were a good use of the city's funds—$48,000 for the charging station installation and $215,844 for the parking lot.

"I remember when we talked about this, I didn't remember putting these stations up were going to cost us any money," Mayor Jeff Coleman said. "I was surprised to see the $48,000. I thought that we got enough grants to completely cover that cost."

The price tag for the parking lot also gave Coleman pause.

"I have some real issues with spending almost a quarter of a million dollars for those 60 spots. And the reason being is that of that entire street, this location is the least used [southeast corner of Pfennig] of any of the park along that road," Coleman said.

The council did approve nearly $1.7 million in other projects at the same time.

The charging station installation is on hold pending further discussion.

Council approves first land sale for Renewable Energy Park

On Jan. 24, the Pflugerville City Council unanimously approved the sale of 15 acres by Pflugerville Community Development Corp. to Pecan Renewable Energy Park LLC.

The $2 million sale is the first land sale for the 167-acre Pflugerville Renewable Energy Park. Pecan Renewable Energy Park will be located within Pflugerville Renewable Energy Park.

The 15 acres are expected to be used to build two 120,000-square-foot warehouse and manufacturing facilities that would be leased to potential green-energy businesses working in wind turbine parts production, LED lighting and solar energy. The land would allow for 720,000 square feet of space for development.

PCDC Executive Director Floyd Akers said that, in another deal, Renewable Property Group LLC has agreed to buy 6 acres for $600,000 for the development of up to eight buildings for a total of 48,000 square feet of office space.

The space, he said, will largely be used as a headquarters for Renewable Resource Consultants, which has offices in Round Rock. Renewable Property Group is affiliated with Renewable Resource Consultants.