.png)
During its Tuesday meeting, the Hays County Commissioners Court expressed support of many proposed bills in the 87th regular session of the Texas Legislature, including one that would create a new District Court for the county.
The commissioners await more details of the legislation before writing resolutions of support, but expressed general support of several.
House Bill 37 would establish a public routing process for oil and gas pipelines, requiring companies to go through the same process that governmental entities follow for roads and powerlines. A public routing process would provide landowners with a greater voice and help ensure that the process is fair for all parties.
Commissioners Walt Smith and Debbie Ingalsbe supported coming back with a resolution given the issues that came up with the Kinder Morgan Permian Highway Pipeline.
“That was a lot of the comments that we received during the whole process as we held meetings across the county,” Ingalsbe said. “You know, ‘why can’t they have the same processes that even we have to go through as a county and to give more notification to residents and others that this could possibly happen,’ so I certainly support that.”
House Bill 176 would give local governments the authority to ban containers if they choose; this bill is particularly interesting to San Marcos where “can bans” to prevent littering on the river have come up in city council and parks board discussions.
Smith expects the City of San Marcos to support this bill.
House Bill 242 would require oil and gas companies operating in the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone to submit a water pollution abatement plan. The bill was filed in response to the Kinder Morgan Permian Highway Pipeline.
Commissioners Smith, Ingalsbe and Lon Shell found this bill to be “reasonable.”
House Bill 298 would allow cities to extend dark sky ordinances to their extraterritorial jurisdiction.
Smith, although supportive of the Dark Skies Initiative, had concerns with offering additional zoning authority within the ETJ without cities and municipalities offering to do the same for the county.
“I’m also very much in support of the Dark Skies Initiative,” Shell said. “I think its very much a part of trying to protect the kind of nature and quality of life in Hays County. So I definitely support it.”
Shell wanted to see the support of Dripping Springs and Wimberley before moving forward with a resolution.
House Bill 1512 grants authority to the Hays County Commissioners Court, instead of the Texas Department of Transportation, to handle permitting for billboards in unincorporated areas along Farm to Market and Ranch to Market roads. This would allow the county to determine where billboards make sense, protecting rural roads that depend on scenic tourism.
The commissioners court has supported similar legislation in the past and this particular piece was drafted with the help of the Driftwood Historic Conservation Society. Smith offered to write a resolution of support.
House Bill 2422 would give the county commissioners courts in fast growing counties the authority to regulate the location of new quarries and other incoming aggregate production operations to give counties more authority where high-impact businesses set up.
Smith shared his own experience of aggregate facilities moving into residential neighborhoods and producing aggregate and crushing operations between homes.
“I’m not an overly burdensome regulatory supporter in the least,” said Smith. “But I do believe in smart zoning and I believe this is one area where we as a county should have some type of zoning authority. I would be supportive.”
Smith pointed out that the bill is especially relevant to the Hill Country because Hays and surrounding counties are aggregate providers to an entire region of the state. He said when the current legislation was enacted, there were around 250 aggregate facilities in Texas, and now there are over 2,000.
Shell offered support so long as they communicated with Comal County to coordinate efforts on a resolution.
House Bill 186 would provide an ad valorem tax exemption for homeowners who install rainwater or greywater systems to encourage water conservation efforts, as well as for those who install solar panels on their homes.
House Bill 2350 would incentivize nature-based infrastructure projects through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund by making extra funds available for communities that are seeking loans for wastewater system upgrades.
Both of these bills were supported by the commissioners.
The remainder of the proposed legislation provided by Representative Erin Zwiener (D-Driftwood) was not spoken about in the meeting, except that the commissioners wanted more details on the language of the legislation before they offered any verbal or written support.
House Bill 3223 related to the use of certain municipalities of municipal hotel occupancy tax revenue for the enhancement and maintenance of public parks. House Bill 3722 relates to training materials for contact tracers and case investigators for public health disasters and other public health emergencies.
House Bill 3843 relates to the authority of a county to regulate impervious cover around certain floodplains. House Bill 4499 related to a study of feasibility of establishing a regional connected trails program.
One house concurrent resolution would establish the City of Kyle as the Pie Capital of Texas, and another would designate the City of San Marcos as the Mermaid Capital of Texas.
The San Marcos City Council has already written its own letter of support to the state legislature.
In other business, Emergency Management Director Mike Jones announced efforts to launch an ongoing COVID-19 vaccine clinic at Wimberley First Baptist church from Monday through Friday.
Next week the county will be at the Performing Arts Center in Kyle to give out second doses of the vaccine.
