The New Braunfels City Council approved an ordinance during their July 25 meeting to adopt a municipal utility district,or MUD, petition filing fee. Unlike other neighboring municipalities, New Braunfels did not previously charge to process MUD development requests.
A MUD is a special district that functions as independent and limited government. The purpose of a MUD is to provide a developer with an alternate way to finance infrastructure.
“Charging fees for development applications are intended to cover the cost of services provided so that the taxpayer is not covering the cost of the staff and third-party time spent processing these developer applications,” said Christopher Looney, planning and development services director for the city of New Braunfels.
City Council was shown a presentation regarding the MUD petition filing fee, which included a review of the process and breakdown of how much time city departments spend on the applications. On average, among other city staff members, the assistant planning director and assistant city attorney spend 10 hours independently reviewing MUD applications.
