At this week's (December 8th) Bee Cave City Council meeting a deal was ratified between the City, the Covert Car dealership and the Sweetwater developers. The dealership will move further West and across 71 to the land between LTISD's bus barn and Sweetwater at the Serene Hills light.

 

 

The threat of a car dealership behind Falconhead west has been a huge issue for the local authority - involving noise, light and safety concerns.

 

We are grateful to Councilwoman Kara King's Facebook group for the update. Here is the full text.

 

"Last night, at the city council meeting, Council executed a Development Agreement with the Developers of Sweetwater, the Sweetwater MUD and Covert. The agreement has been being worked on by the legal parties for quite some time now. Here are the highlights:

*Covert will be moving to an eastern tract of the Sweetwater property, between the edge of the LTISD property and the Serene Hills light. (This is a huge step in mitigating the safety factor.)

*As part of this agreement, Sweetwater will become part of the ETJ, thereby giving the City of Bee Cave some control over the development of the retail/multi family component, vs no control as it stood before. The residents of Sweetwater should not see the development as it will be on the other side of the eastern hill that borders the residential area of the property. Covert will not be bordering a residential neighborhood, unlike the old plan outside of Falconhead West.

*Covert will be complying with all landscape, lighting and noise ordinances. Additionally they have a much larger setback than what was originally planned. If the building is under 5,000 sq ft, the setback is 75 ft off the road and height cannot exceed 35ft. (This meet current city standards.) If the building is greater than 5,000 sq ft, the setback is 225 ft off the road and height cannot exceed 45ft.

*Covert agreed to deed restrict their current property, outside Falconhead West, that it will not be an auto dealership/service and it will be neighborhood service. This goes into escrow starting the day the agreement was signed (Dec 8, 2015) and will be held for 180 days. If the annexation of Sweetwater goes through and everything proceeds for them, then on June 5, 2016 this will be recorded.

*The development agreement regulations for the Sweetwater development property exceed what our current regulations allow for ETJ.

*The public hearings for the annexation are Jan 26th at 6pm and Feb 9th at 6pm. If you are in favor of this move, it would be wise to support the annexation.

At the meeting tonight, the attorney for the Covert family said they asked him to express their desire to work with the city and the citizens of the community going forward, and they regret the animosity that was caused due to their earlier development plans."

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