ROCKWALL COUNTY, Texas \u2014 A district judge has ruled in favor of Rockwall County in its ongoing legal battle with D.R. Horton, allowing the case to move closer to trial and setting up what county officials say could have broader implications across Texas.<\/p>\n
The dispute centers on whether the county can require the nation\u2019s largest homebuilder, D.R. Horton, to help pay for infrastructure improvements tied to planned housing developments.<\/p>\n
Rockwall County Judge Frank New described the county\u2019s unique constraints.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re the smallest geographic county in the state of Texas: 12 miles by 12 miles,\u201d New said.<\/p>\n
D.R. Horton sued after the county demanded the developer contribute to infrastructure costs associated with plans to build thousands of homes in the rapidly growing area.<\/p>\n
\u201cCome in and participate, be a good neighbor, and it\u2019s quite that simple. And, unfortunately, we have a developer who is not willing to be a good neighbor,\u201d New said.<\/p>\n
For years, New has opposed the expansion of municipal utility districts, or MUDs \u2014 state-approved developments that counties have limited authority to regulate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat fundamentally changes our counties in ways that we can\u2019t recover from,\u201d New said.<\/p>\n
Residents have also raised concerns about the developments.<\/p>\n
\u201cCause they go outside of the ordinances of the limits of what they\u2019re supposed to be doing. It\u2019s impossible to plan for these,\u201d said McLendon-Chisholm resident Bob Steinhagen.<\/p>\n
After unsuccessful attempts to address the issue at the state level, New said the county turned to the courts, citing Texas Local Government Code Section 232.110 as the basis for requiring developers to share infrastructure costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd to build a safe development, a development where you have water and you can put out a fire is not asking too much,\u201d New said.<\/p>\n
The 382nd District Court recently denied D.R. Horton\u2019s motion for partial summary judgment, meaning some issues raised in the lawsuit will not be resolved before trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have the authority to apportion infrastructure,\u201d New said.<\/p>\n
D.R. Horton did not respond to a request for comment on the ruling or the ongoing litigation.<\/p>\n
With the motion denied, both sides are now preparing for trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to our day in court,\u201d New said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROCKWALL COUNTY, Texas \u2014 A district judge has ruled in favor of Rockwall County in its ongoing legal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,1570,102,8082,138,1063,19797,223,82,27,1569,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-254404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-ctv","12":"tag-dallas","13":"tag-dfw-what-you-need-to-know","14":"tag-el-paso","15":"tag-local-politics","16":"tag-michael-lozano","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-san-antonio","19":"tag-texas","20":"tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","21":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}