The Bee Cave Bee

This week County Commisioner Gerald Daugherty brokered a meeting between local residents and members of the Covert team. Their FaceBook group site outlines the meeting from the neighbors perspective:

"This afternoon, representatives from our committee along with others from the Bee Cave/Hill Country community met with County Commissioner, Gerald Daugherty, and just about everyone with the last name "Covert" as well as their engineering and architecture teams. The meeting lasted about 1.5 hours and can be summed up in a few points.

1. Commissioner Daugherty opened the meeting asking for common ground and civility. He asked the Coverts to go first and present their plan hoping that would answer many of our questions.
2. The Coverts presented their more revised site plan. The only change was they have moved the fuel tank to the other side of the property, closer to Nitro.
2. They told us how they are just like us and have families they care about and basically tried to identify with us in order to win us over.
3. Duke Covert was the spokesman for their group.
4. We then presented our side. We laid out all the reasons we have all discussed over and over again as to why no dealership should go there. Everything from safety to lighting was put forth in a concise and systematic method. We told them we know, legally, they can move forward even thought the city, county, LTISD and TxDOT have all said this is a bad idea.
5. We then summed everything up with, the fact that no amount of concessions on there end will make the dealership satisfactory. We also laid out our action plan (at a high level and not giving away everything) to show them we are willing to make this painful for them and we will not give up. We told them if they move forward, they are in for a huge fight.

We were meet with mixed reactions from their side. Some seemed a little concerned, some not so much. We did get some feedback both verbal and non-verbal that told us we made a great case and they are listening and they realize they have a BIG problem on their hands. The next step is we need to give them a little time to mull over what was said and their options. I will reach out to their representative after an appropriate amount of time and ask them directly about their "new" intentions. After that conversation, we will have either succeeded and they go elsewhere or we commence our action plan to MAKE them go elsewhere. In the mean time we will continue to monitor the city, county and state agencies for action by the Coverts. Our committee will also be meeting with Rep. Paul Workman next week to bring this to his attention and that of the state level.

As things develop we will continue to update everyone as best we can. Thank you for your attention and willingness to stand up and protect our Hill Country community."

• Add New

Comments (5)

• 2013-01-31 18:19:57 | Sheila  - Covert plan!
  Hopefully the Coverts now see just how much their plan affects residents and maybe they will realize it's not a good business decision to upset so many people. As a local business owner I know just how valuable our profile in the community is. I don't live in Falconhead W but I do drive Hwy 71 W every day and don't want to see it turned into the next "motor mile".
  • 7
  • 6

  Reply

• 2013-02-02 09:05:44 | Dave  - Hoping for the best for Falconhead West
  2 years ago, I was considering purchasing a house in Falconhead West. However, it backed up to commercial property on Hwy 71 with about a 100 foot buffer. This is the very reason I moved on from purchasing in that area... I did not know what would have been in my backyard!. Now, I know. I wish Falconhead West residents the best in continuing their fight. It is this type of development that backs up to established residential neighborhoods that ruins property values and quality of life.
  • 3
  • 1

  Reply

• 2013-02-02 11:25:04 | Concerned in big way!  - effective?
  But was the meeting effective? With a SOLD sign now on the 23 acre parcel, doesn't this mean that Covert's went ahead and finalized the purchase. The sold sign went up the same day of this meeting I believe. Good Faith or LIP SERVICE by Coverts? I vote for the later. I don't think they're going away and we need to step up the pace of the "fight". They have families too, but they only care about their OWN family, not all the family's lives that will be destroyed by the epic eye sore they are proposing right next to a carefully designed, beautiful, residential (with lots of children now in danger of test drives) neighborhood. Stupidity and Greed at its best!!!! And when the unsafe entrance/exit causes a major accident on Hwy 71 (since Tx DOT told them it wasn't safe location) they will hopefully go bankrupt from the law suit!
  • 2
  • 3

  Reply

• 2013-02-05 20:59:12 | Sharon  - Eye sore and so much more!
  I frequently walk my neighborhood and I'm so shocked and amazed at how the proposed Covert dealership will be a significant eye sore for so many of us! It's awful! This will effect my property value along with all of my neighbors. The lights, traffic (test driving through Falconhead West), the extra traffic, fuel tank, parking structure, noise pollution in a quiet
  Hill Country neighborhood is completely unacceptable. Where do you see a dealership invading a neighborhood like this? We need to wake up and get this stopped!
  • 2
  • 1

  Reply

• 2013-02-10 14:54:32 | Denise  - check with the county for deed restrictions
  When I lived in the ETJ of Dripping Springs, there was some acreage along Hwy 290 (right behind my subdivision), and a developer wanted to put in storage units. The city of DS approved the site plan and it was ready to be built.
  
  We (homeowners) went down to Hays County real estate records department and found the deed restrictions for that land which specifically said NO STORAGE UNITS (and other restrictions as well). We sent certified letters to the developer, his attorney, and the dopes in the city who never even checked the records for the land before approving. The deal was instantly shut down. That was about 7 years ago, and the land still sits vacant.
  
  I'm not saying this will work out the same for you, but it is certainly worth investigating. It cost us about $10.00 in search fees with the county and that was it. Deed restrictions stay with the land forever, so when a developer buys land, he knows whether it has restrictions or not. Sometimes they just figure no one will ever check and they go ahead and build whatever they want. Good luck!
  • 1
  • 0

  Reply

Write comment

Your Contact Details:

Name:

Email: do not notifynotify

Comment:

Title:

Message:

Security

Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by Compojoom comment 4.1.4 stable