Wimberley asks for attorney general's opinion on water protection powers . . . why?

Nearby Dripping Springs, which forged water quality ordinances after a two-year regional planning process, will support Wimberley in the matter

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Editor's Note: Why Wimberley city officials felt it necessary to seek an AG's opinion on this little matter is beyond us, unless the city likes to spend its money chasing frivolous legal questions. Cities have long held the authority to enforce development regulations in their ETJs. (See this link: http://law.onecle.com/texas/local-government/42.001.00.html). The closest examples are Dripping Springs and the City of Woodcreek, as the story points out. Wimberley's paid legal counsel, Cindy Crosby, of the Austin law firm Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP, was no help in answering the 'why' question. Ms. Crosby told the RoundUp, "I think the city's position was clear in the article in the Statesman. As a lawyer my advice to council is confidential. It was discussed in closed session."

We wonder what was discussed in that closed session? City officials and staff, we are informed, had to be brought in kicking and screaming to add a non-point source pollution ordinance to the city's ETJ development regulations. Said one city source, "The fact is that our boys on the council don't want any more regulations. Maybe they've been talking to the developers, and this is their way of seeing if we can do that and have the city pay for it."

Read the whole story at this link:
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/2009/10/19/1019development.html

Austin American-Statesman

By Asher Price

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, October 19, 2009

An upcoming opinion by the state attorney general on whether Wimberley can regulate development in areas outside its city limits could have implications across the Hill Country.

The City Council wants to enact construction rules in the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction — an area outside the city but subject to some city rules — to limit pollution from oil washing off driveways or from fertilizer washing off yards, among other things. The rules could require setbacks from waterways, detention ponds to capture pollutants or silt fences to prevent construction materials or eroding soils from washing into streams.

State Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, acting on behalf of Wimberley, posed the matter to the attorney general's office. An answer is unlikely to come this year, but the public comment period closes Friday. Several small cities that already have such construction rules are preparing to ask the attorney general to uphold that authority.

Hill Country hamlets are fast becoming burgs, and in the process officials are grappling with how to protect streams and aquifers that are important for drinking water and tourism. Cypress Creek and the Blanco River cut through Wimberley, for example, and the Trinity Aquifer sits beneath it.

The population in western Hays County, including Wimberley, estimated at 30,000 in 2005, could grow to 63,000 by 2035, according to data provided by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.

"The city has a strong desire to enforce water quality controls in our ETJ," said Wimberley City Manager Don Ferguson. "It's the belief of our city that we have the ability to enforce such regulations, ... but we thought it would be prudent to seek an attorney general's opinion to make sure we're on solid ground on the issue, to limit the legal risk of challenge."