Saturday, October 12, 2024
RENO — Reno City Council took a big step forward in shaping the city’s future last week by consenting to the creation of a municipal utility district.
That doesn’t mean that such a district will be established overnight.
Lee Hughes, a developer of 738 acres of land in Reno and its outskirts, and civil engineer Travis Clegg presented a plan to the council at the Sept. 9 meeting. A municipal utility district, or MUD, is defined by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s website as “formed under specific circumstances to provide utility services to a designated area.” Developments in Reno cannot be less than one acre because that is how much space is needed for septic systems since the city does not have a public sewer system. This MUD could allow developments on Hughes’ 738 acres to bypass this rule by establishing sewer and water infrastructure.
This land includes 310 quarter-acre lots, which was included in a preliminary plat that council approved earlier this year, north of State Highway 199 and south of Arvel Circle.
The developed property may include 1,800 to 2,200 homes of varying sizes when fully built out in 18 years, Hughes said, but those numbers aren’t set in stone. He envisions a planned development separate from strict zoning that could include a new city hall, a senior citizens center, park areas and headquarters for emergency services. Part of Hughes’ 738 acres are inside Reno’s and Azle’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, but Clegg said there is a way to get those areas out of ETJs and into the city of Reno through voluntary annexation.
Hughes explained that the city would still collect taxes from properties within the MUD, and people living within that district would pay additional taxes for infrastructure related to the MUD.
Depending on how they are assembled, MUDs are overseen by the cities they are in and can be tailored to the needs of that city, Clegg said.
“You still have control over how this thing plays out in the future,” Clegg said to the council Sept. 9. “What happens tonight is some formal resolutions that allow us to take the next steps to have conversations to figure out what the issues are and what the cost would be to fix those issues. We don't know what those numbers are today. We've had some preliminary conversations. It could be millions upon millions of dollars, and to recoup those dollars, that's what these developers are doing so they can also provide for an affordable housing program to a future resident.”
The council also approved a resolution in a 4-1 vote directing Reno city staff to work with the city of Springtown “regarding the supply, treatment and conveyance of water” in both cities and their extra territorial jurisdictions. Members unanimously authorized the mayor to execute an agreement to reimburse the city for expenses incurred from studying water and sewer solutions as well as MUD implementation.
Clegg said the MUD would be the developer’s risk, not the city’s, if a significant portion of the subdivision was vacant and the developer couldn’t get a return on their investment. In fact, there’s a chance that the developer will conduct the studies and not find a viable solution in the creation of the MUD. Hughes agreed to spend the money to research the situation but also needed the council’s commitment before moving forward, hence the need for consenting to the creation of a MUD on the council’s agenda.
Mayor Pro Tem Shelli Swift asked Hughes during the meeting about the possibility of hosting a workshop to discuss the pros and cons of MUDs before moving forward, saying that the council did not have much time to research.
“I'm thinking asking for another week or two for us to get more information shouldn't be that much on that big of a project, on that big of an impact,” Swift said. “The city of Reno has never had a MUD district, and asking us to just vote willy nilly I don't think is the best idea.”
However, Hughes was adamant that he needed a commitment from the city council before moving forward.
“Again, we may come back to you, Councilwoman Swift, and we may say it doesn't work, but to take another week and have a workshop and have this person come in and that person come in, it doesn't seem prudent to me personally to go through that on one more subject,” Hughes said during the meeting.
Swift ultimately voted against the MUD creation, along with council member Joy Jenkins. Jenkins also cast the only nay vote against approving the resolution between Springtown and Reno.
After the meeting, Reno Mayor Hector Bas Jr. said he was pleased with the outcome and that council members asked a lot of questions.
“I’m happy that they decided to move forward because the city really needs some help,” Bas said. “We need better infrastructure, and this is a means to that.”
The MUD proposal did garner one incident of formal pushback from a resident; former Mayor Eric Hunter addressed the council ahead of Hughes’ and Clegg’s presentation.
“The creation of this MUD is not going to financially benefit Reno,” Hunter said during the meeting. “It's not going to financially benefit the water or the citizens of Reno. It will, however, benefit investors, developers. It will also open up even more opportunities for quarter-acre lots or smaller, and with those lot sizes come residents with quarter-acre mentality. They're going to want Reno (to) run like Azle or Fort Worth or whatever else community they came from with dense housing, and the rural Reno lifestyle will be no more.”
