At the meeting held 8/1 by the developer proposing the 920 homes on Rd. 158, it was revealed that the preliminary plat by Bandera (previous developers) had expired because a final plat was never approved by the county. Per the resolution approved in 2009, the developer only had one year to have the final plat approved. Since the preliminary plat for this development was approved in 2009, too much time has elapsed for it to be used by the current developer, Independence.
So the next step for Independence is to do their own preliminary plat. They are still proposing 920 homes; however, the public can now have input into the process by showing up at public hearings, planning commission meetings and county commissioner meetings when this development is on the agenda.
There was a very good turnout tonight for the meeting. The initial format (folks moving through the various "stations") did not work, and the crowd basically forced the presenters to conduct a large group session. The setting still wasn't ideal: folks had to stand for the entire 2 hours, and the absence of any microphones made it difficult to hear which led to a somewhat disjointed presentation.
The overall consensus of those present was clearly that this development did not fit with the rural nature of Elbert County.
A couple of interesting tidbits: when asked by an attendee if Kurt Schlegel had been hired by the developer, it was acknowledged that Mr. Schlegel had done some "initial contact work" for this developer. Additionally, Diane Miller (Karl Nyquist's attorney) is the attorney for the metro district that will control and provide the water for this development.
If the future of Elbert County development and the use of our limited non-renewable water are as important to you as they are to me, I encourage you to get involved and stay involved!- Jill Duvall
