County-Related News

Two counties pass subdivision regulations under HB 2833

[Below are two articles from the Corpus Christi and Waco newspapers about two counties that have passed subdivision regulations under HB 2833, which passed in the 81st Legislature.]

Aransas County passes subdivision regulations
By Jaime Powell
Corpus Christi Caller-Times
Monday, October 12, 2009

ROCKPORT — Developers who want to build in Aransas County now face regulations designed to control the caliber of development and its potential environmental impact.

Aransas County commissioners voted unanimously Monday to institute a subdivision policy for unincorporated areas of the county, with requirements including lot size, utilities access, fire suppression equipment and road quality.

In 2007 the Legislature granted counties expanded regulatory authority via subdivision ordinances, previously only a municipal power.

No developers spoke during the public portion of the meeting.

In rapidly developing Aransas County, the cities of Rockport and Fulton have been subject to city zoning rules. But unincorporated parts of the county have developed without much oversight, county officials said. Some neighborhoods were built in a flood plain. And remodeling and expansion projects proceeded with almost no oversight, county officials said.

“We have had some low end range development in our county and we wanted to put a stop to that,” Commissioner Charles Smith said. “I would not call them colonias but they came close.”

The subdivision plan passed Monday also ties into the county’s ongoing storm water management plan, designed to manage the quantity and quality of runoff into coastal waterways.

“Environmental issues in our county become economic issues,” Smith said, referring to the county’s economic reliance on tourism and outdoor activities such as fishing. “We are not against development, we are just against irresponsible development.”

Under the terms of the plan passed Monday, any future developments in unincorporated parts of the county must manage storm water with features such as drainage easements, channels, detention ponds, water quality facilities and drainage structures.

“We are trying to protect Aransas County from development that is harmful to the environment and our quality of life that we dearly love,” County Judge Burt Mills said.

“Environmental issues in our county become economic issues. We are not against development, we are just against irresponsible development.”


County taking over code enforcement duties in new home construction
By Regina Dennis
Waco Herald-Herald
Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The McLennan County Commissioners Court approved a resolution Tuesday that makes it the county’s responsibility to ensure that new homes meet local building code standards, a duty formerly managed by a state agency.

The commissioners approved the resolution adopting H.B. 2833, a bill passed by the Texas Legislature allowing counties to police whether new homes constructed in unincorporated county areas are built to code and properly inspected.

Though the county could punish builders with a Class C misdemeanor for non-compliance with the resolution, County Engineer Steve Hendrick said the engineer’s office will not actively track whether all new construction are following building code requirements.

“One way we would find out about it is that when you’re building in the county, at some point you have to get a septic permit, so if we see that someone has applied for that but they never gave notification that they were building, we’d know that they didn’t do what they were supposed to do,” Hendrick said.

The resolution mandates that home builders must inform the county engineer’s office of new home construction and declare whether they will follow the 2009 city of Waco building code or the 2006 International Building Code. New homes must also undergo three inspections — foundation, framing and mechanical, and a final inspection — and deliver copies of the inspection reports to the county engineer.

“We will basically be a repository for the construction and inspection information and keep files so that if someone is looking to buy a home, they can come to us to request the inspections information,” Hendrick said. “It’s more of a transparency and public- information function.”

These enforcement duties were previously handled by the Texas Residential Construction Commission, but the agency was dissolved Sept. 1 after the legislature allowed its sunset legislation to expire. State agencies face a sunset review once every 12 years, but the legislature did not address the residential construction commission during the regular and special sessions this year.

Kay Vinzant, executive officer of the Heart of Texas Builders Association, said they support the resolution because it helps standardize home construction in the county. While most construction companies know to follow building codes and have their work inspected, individuals building houses or home expansions may not adhere to the codes.

“There are so many cases. I get calls all the time where people just didn’t know,” Vinzant said. “Sometimes, people feel like, ‘It’s my land, I can do whatever I want to.’ Well, that’s not really the case. This is to protect them and everybody else, too, because when most people build a home, they intend to sell it.”

Though the legislation went into effect Sept. 1, builders are only required to meet local code inspections if a county adopts a resolution in support of the bill. Vinzant urged the county to act quickly so that some method of enforcement would be in place.

“We want to make sure everybody gets a solid-built home because that keeps everything on a level playing field and protects home builders and buyers, to make sure the homes are safe,” Vinzant said.

She said the overall price of a new home will not likely change because the inspections and code standards were already required statewide.

Commissioner Lester Gibson said that it’s important that people get their homes inspected to catch any potential problems with the home early in the construction.

“In my precinct, you have a lot of shifting of the ground out there because of the makeup of the soil, and if you don’t have some guidance from engineers and professionals, you may find yourself having to fix the foundation in five years,” Gibson said. “These regulations are not stringent, just the basic standards and guidelines to make sure the home is safe and sound.”