Residents vow to stop housing development just outside of Santa Fe

Only one way to stop the development - buy out the land and let it retain its pastoral setting. But no one's willing to do that. Even in unincorporated areas retention ponds have been made next to such developments to address flooding.

Well now. When I was city councilman in Santa Fe we developed an annexation plan to annex this area, along with others. After I left council, the annexation plan was objected to by these same residents. That city council backed down and voted not to proceed with annexation. Since then, the Texas legislature has basically put a stop to all municipal annexations (with a few exceptions).

I’m so sorry this is happening, because it could have been avoided. The council could have proceeded with annexation back then even over the objections of the residents, but chose not to because some of you were very persuasive. Now you have very little recourse, as the county, nor the drainage district can stop this. The legislature can’t help you either.

Folks, I live right down the street from you all and I consider you my neighbors, however I’m so glad I live within the city limits. I wish you all well.

What will this do to the school population in Santa Fe (or whatever district it is in)?

What about street/road traffic?

Not the same situation at all Carlos. The convenience store across the street and HEB sells beer and cigarettes, so your argument about proximity to kids is kind of not relevant.

My point with the mobile home park in the county is that if that land had been annexed by the City of Santa Fe, the parcel would have been zoned AR (Agriculture/Residential), so the developers would have had to come in front of the Planning and Zoning Commission to ask for a zoning change, and then the City Council would have had to approve the change. All of those meetings would have been open to public citizen comment and the citizens would have been able to voice their disapproval. A zoning change to Manufactured Housing would have been met with stiff opposition by all. There would have also been set back rules, density calculations, landscape regulations, and a whole host of other provisions that this developer would have had to meet. These hurdles would have most probably kept them from pursuing the project.

The adjacent land owners out there now have none of these safeguards. The county will have some building ordinances and DD1 will have some basic drainage calculations to be met, but that’s it. Unless something unforeseen happens, like the developer not having proper capital, this project will move forward.