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Bee Cave City Council rejected a special use permit for a research and development lab for VVater, a water treatment company, at an Aug. 25 council meeting.
The background
VVater is a water technology company that offers water treatment and reuse solutions.
The company applied for a special use permit for its research and development lab to be located at a roughly 3-acre property along RM 620.
No new construction or site development was proposed; however, the applicant requested that the city modify the unified development code to allow open or outdoor storage for research lab uses, according to city documents.
This modification would then allow the company to temporarily store completed water treatments units outside of the building within an 18,700-square-foot area.
The unified development code is a document that consolidates the regulations surrounding land development in Bee Cave.
Although the storage would take place in front of the building, visible from certain areas of RM 620, the application states that VVater would cover the storage with landscaping and shrubbery.
“This is only for temporary storage ... if there is no storage indoors, or until somebody comes and picks them up, or they get distributed ...” a representative from VVater said. “There will be many times when there is nothing out there.”
The issue
Although the planning and zoning commission recommended the permit for approval, with the condition of the landscaping covering the units, City Council was concerned about the visibility of the units even with the proposed shrubbery.
The city of Bee Cave prohibits storage in front of properties, Bee Cave Mayor Kara King said.
“I’m not OK with seeing storage units... . We have an ordinance to shield them for a reason ...” King said. “I don’t want to start a precedent where other storage facilities are going to say, ‘Well I’m going to put my storage unit outside,’ and then you drive down 620 and you’re looking at storage outside buildings. That’s exactly why the ordinance is written the way it is because we don’t want to see it.”
What else
Council denied the special use permit, citing concerns that other properties may try to do the same.
“Every decision I make I think, ‘How will I feel if this gets replicated,’ because it will,” King said.
