The 90th regular session of the Texas Legislature is set to convene in January and legislators from the metropolitan areas continue to escalate the trend of using their power to usurp local control from rural communities.
A public town hall meeting to discuss subdivision regulations and industrial high load facilities such as data centers and crypto mining is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at the Dunbar Gym located at 1103 Dunbar St. in Livingston.
“We have fought the legislature the last two sessions and written several letters. With the constant grab out of Austin, we thought we would preempt them this session and be ready, so we’re compiling photos and attaching them to the information,” County Judge Sydney Murphy said.
“The goal is that we’ve got to get the attention of the people in Austin. They’re saying we should trash our subdivision regulations and trash our large development regulations, but we want to continue the subdivision regulations and improve as we go. We’re already correcting mapping mistakes as we find them,” Murphy said.
“We’re not opposed to development and we’re not trying to stop growth or business coming in. We’re trying to avoid a Plum Grove,” she said.
“Every precinct has issues,” she said, adding that some of the ones eyed include Oasis, Indian Springs, Tom Marsh, 1987 and Wild Country.
The issues include easements, logging trails, runoff and drainage, septic and water, road access, crossing private property, the flood plain and mapping accuracy.
“It’s also a health and safety issue. We have first responders taking people out with four-wheelers and stretchers. We had someone call and say, ‘Everything I own is burning,’ but the firetrucks couldn’t find it,” Murphy said.
“We also want to avoid fraud and we want the children to have access to school, which they don’t if the buses can’t get down their road,” she said.
“We can’t address non-county roads, however. The county cannot expend taxpayer monies on private roads.
“We need for Austin to back off and, if nothing else, get more stringent about subdivision regulations. We need to be able to show what the issues are and why we have the subdivision regulations. We’re going to continue to push. We can’t just take a beating,” Murphy said.
