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Developers of the controversial Guajolote Ranch Subdivision in northwest Bexar County have withdrawn their application for a Public Improvement District and have pivoted to another plan.
Florida-based Lennar Homes withdrew the application for the PID, only to file for a Municipal Utility District, or MUD, for the development, this time through the city of San Antonio.
Randy Neumann is with The Scenic Loop - Helotes Creek Alliance, a group that opposes the project.
“And what it does is allows them to basically become their own little city. They can do bonding, they can levy taxes. They have a fairly broad swath of powers," he told TPR.
Neumann says the MUDs in Texas have typically increased taxes for residents.
“But what has happened as a result of these MUDs is that taxes actually go up two to three times what they are in the city because the costs of delivering economies of scale are just not there. “
The city’s planning department will brief city council members Dec. 17 on the MUD petition, during a council work session.
A MUD is established by petition to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
San Antonio must formally consent through resolution or ordinance before it can be created, as Guajolote Ranch is located in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction.
“Typically, if the city says no, the TCEQ will not override that. They do have an alternative. They can go to the state legislature, but that means creating a bill and waiting for the legislature to meet, which won't happen until 2027," Neumann said.
Lennar would use the tax dollars to fund a water treatment plant, which would dump as much as one million gallons of treated wastewater into Helotes Creek per day, which opposition groups say could affect the quality of the Edwards Aquifer.
Lennar plans to build 2,900 homes on 1,160 acres of Guajolote Ranch, west of the intersection of Scenic Loop and Babcock roads.
