Minutes of the meeting of the Neighbors of Sandy Creek
held on August 12th at the Round Mountain School/Community Center.

There were approximately 60 participants for this meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to communicate with County Commissioner, Precinct 3, Gerald Daugherty about the ongoing problem with:

1)  Illegal subdivisions that add to the water issues.
2) Aqua and its role in the new illegal development and resubdivisions of lots and extensions of inadequate system.

Commissioner Daugherty began by saying he would tell us what he knows about the issue, how he found out, and where it stands at this time. The county will be focusing on stopping the development without making the situation worse over the long term.

The county engineers, planners and the assistant county attorney have met with the development owners, so they know that they are in trouble. They have not submitted a subdivision plan or plat that complies with the county regulations. One attempt to get the development legal is to use the condominium regime to try to fit their purposes, which has not been accepted by the county, but they are still trying to work it out. The developers are trying to side-step county regulations

There is a “stop-work order” in place, and the legal department is looking at all of the options that they think a court would uphold. They can’t go out and put notices on the individual trailers to move out of the place, and we can’t keep them from bringing in more
trailers. He told us that the county attorney is getting the Attorney General involved which would provide more impact.

Nearby land owners told Daugherty that there has been ongoing work being done on a new 7 acre lot that is land locked, and people are trespassing to access it. There is also a septic tank ready to be dropped into an already dug hole on the original 20 acres. Daugherty
said that he would look into those issues because there are legal remedies available for immediate action, and asked that the property owners call him when they see this activity. He said that he would drive out to observe the septic tank today, before it could be dropped
and covered.

There was a lot of discussion about the Aqua water system and it’s inadequacy to supply existing demand. The new taps at the property line on each 10 acre tract are a problem but not considered illegal construction since they are on the right of way and not on the
property. If they try to extend internal water lines to hook up the trailers, then that would be illegal construction.  We were promised that if we organized to file complaints with the Public Utility Commission and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, he would back
us up as an elected official, but that he had no separate standing to file a complaint.

He said that the Travis County Fire Marshall will enforce the fire prevention regulations, and that the Chaparral development would have to have a lot of water storage in place to fight fires on their property before they could become compliant with fire regulations. The Health Department will inspect the suspect illegal septic system.

He promised us that this is one of his three or four top priorities (thanks to Chad and Melissa Moss and others who have relentlessly complained to him) and that he will work hard to bring a resolution to the situation because this area could easily turn into a “colonia” if
this isn’t stopped.

He also promised to keep us all informed as to his actions and progress. Many attendees signed a sheet giving his executive assistant, Bob Moore, their contact information and were promised email updates.

Thanks for all who came out and also for the interest of those who could not attend.

Linda Hambrick
512-415-5803
Linda.hambrick1@gmail.com
24604 Long Hollow Trail