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Paul Colliander, a member\u00a0of the Villas at Timberwood Homeowners Association, walks by a gated area for the subdivision\u2019s septic system. The homeowners association is asking the San Antonio City Council to waive more than $415,000 in fees to connect to San Antonio Water System’s sewer system.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Katina Zentz\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n
A request from a North Side subdivision to waive fees to connect to the San Antonio Water System\u2019s sewer system got a cold shoulder from much of the city council.<\/p>\n
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Homeowners in Villas at\u00a0Timberwood, a 75-home neighborhood near\u00a0Timberwood Park, want to connect to SAWS after years of struggling with a failing communal septic system.<\/p>\n
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They\u2019ve been awarded $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds from\u00a0Bexar County for the effort, but the work is expected to cost $2.8 million, and the homeowners association is still trying to cover the remainder. They\u2019re seeking a waiver of $415,575 in impact fees owed to SAWS for the connection; the fees are charged by the utility for all new hookups to its water and sewer lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That would require an exception to the city\u2019s policy, which limits fee waivers to certain projects, such as affordable housing and rehabilitation, and which bars waivers for projects outside city limits. The subdivision will be annexed into the city in 2032 under an existing agreement, but residents there don\u2019t currently pay city property taxes and won\u2019t until then.<\/p>\n
The request was placed on two meeting agendas in August, only to be withdrawn both times. During a meeting Wednesday, council members discussed it publicly for the first time \u2014 in the same briefing where they weighed in on SAWS’ request to raise customers water and sewer rates.<\/p>\n
If the fees are waived, SAWS would have to absorb the lost revenue, which would require covering costs with other revenue from its\u00a0ratepayers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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‘Get this done’<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Misty Spears, who first became involved in the issue when she worked for Bexar County Commissioner Grant Moody, advocated in favor of killing\u00a0the fee. Once the area is annexed, the Villas residents will be Spears’ District 9 constituents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Spears said the council should waive the fees because if the failing septic system isn\u2019t addressed, it\u2019s only a matter of time before it becomes a bigger public health and water quality problem for the Edwards Aquifer, which is the city\u2019s largest water source.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest concern for me, cause y\u2019all know I\u00a0say it all the time, is about our aquifer,\u201d Spears said. The septic system is in the Edwards Aquifer\u2019s contributing zone, near Mustang Creek, which flows into the aquifer\u2019s recharge zone\u00a0\u2014 the area where surface water enters the groundwater system.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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She also said the federal\u00a0funds must be spent by the end of the year, making it an urgent issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve gotten so far along,\u201d she said. \u201cIt feels like man, you don\u2019t want to throw the baby out with the\u00a0bathwater, let\u2019s just get this done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spears said the impact fee policy shouldn\u2019t apply because the houses are an existing development, not a new one. SAWS staff and City Attorney Andy Segovia responded that the fees are owed for all new connections to the SAWS system, not just new buildings.<\/p>\n
Impact fees are intended to\u00a0cover the costs of the infrastructure needed to expand the system; they\u2019re calculated based on growth projections and expected costs to serve that growth. State law dictates how\u00a0the utility calculates the fees, and requires utilities to update them at least once every five years; the current fees were approved unanimously by the City Council in March 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Spear\u2019s only clear ally on the waiver was District 10’s Marc\u00a0Whyte, who said he \u201cwould like to find a way to help these folks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Council not convinced<\/p>\n
But most other council members who addressed the issue appeared likely to reject the request, with several pointing out that there are other pockets of the city where residents with septic systems would like to connect to SAWS and wouldn\u2019t get the same deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand that concern and plight and what the folks have had to go through,\u201d District 4 Councilman Edward Mungia said. But he said the city should work with the county on a solution, not waive the fees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019ve got folks in my district that are not going to be connected,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so it\u2019s going to be hard for me to to tell folks why this neighborhood not in the city limits is going to get connected and not folks over here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
District 3 Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran also said she was concerned about approving the fee waiver without knowing how much the homeowners association\u00a0would contribute toward the effort.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2019, the association sued\u00a0Timberwood Development Company and homebuilder Chesmar Homes over the issue; they reached a settlement in 2024, a few months after the county approved using the federal\u00a0funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Spears said 100% of the settlement amount will go to the sewer connection \u2014 but that the amount is confidential and can\u2019t be disclosed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones also said she does not support the waiver, suggesting instead that Bexar County cover the costs or that council members use their own \u201ccarry forward\u201d money.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s money that is allocated to each council office every year, which members often use for small construction projects in their district. Unused funds roll over each year and can accumulate over time.<\/p>\n
District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez said his understanding from recent budget discussions was that Spears had $585,000 in carry forward money available — enough to cover the waiver.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was one of several council members who suggested annexing the subdivions into the city sooner than 2032, which he said could potentially sway him from opposing the waiver.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf they were down to annex early, that would be something that I might be more willing to consider,\u201d he said. But to seek more than $400,000 from \u201cthe city and our partners\u201d without paying property taxes \u201cdoesn\u2019t jive well with me,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
City Manager Erik Walsh said the residents also have the option of a five-year payment plan to pay the impact fees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That would amount to each home owing about $92 per month for five years, SAWS CEO Robert Puente said. But Walsh said he believes that idea hasn\u2019t gained traction with the residents, and Spears disputed that the homeowners association\u00a0had been offered that option recently.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s up to them to accept or not, but it’s on the table,” Puente said.<\/p>\n
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While most of the council wasn\u2019t supportive of waiving the fees, they did appear largely aligned on discussing potential changes to the fee\u00a0waiver policy in the future, as well as changes to\u00a0the fees themselves, which have been a\u00a0sticking point for some members during recent discussions about SAWS’ rate increase\u00a0proposal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSeveral of our districts have these pockets where households are not connected to SAWS infrastructure,\u201d Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito said, including in her District 7 on the West Side. \u201cNow may be the time for us to look at how we\u2019re going to deal with this holistically.\u201d<\/p>\n
Environmental questions<\/p>\n
While Spears, Moody and the Timberwood residents have raised concerns about the risk to the Edwards Aquifer, SAWS said it doesn\u2019t believe there is an immediate threat.<\/p>\n
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Puente said the amount of waste from the homes is small, and that the largest problem is when there\u2019s heavy rainfall. But in that case, the rainfall is also helpful, he said, because it dilutes potential contamination, which \u201cminimizes\u00a0the effect of those overflows.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Regulation of septic systems like Timberwood\u2019s\u00a0is the responsibility of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, not SAWS or the Edwards Aquifer Authority, the agency that manages the aquifer in the San Antonio area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The homeowners association\u00a0has been fined for violations recently, and Puente said the state agency has been \u201cvery active in this issue.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel that there\u2019s not a big environmental issue that we have to be worried about regarding this development,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The Edwards Aquifer Authority has not been involved in any discussions about the subdivision,\u00a0said Paul Bertetti, the agency’s senior director of aquifer science research and modeling,\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the location of the treatment plant and the creek mean that if waste from the septic system is entering the creek, it\u2019s \u201cvery likely, and almost a certainty\u201d that it reaches nearby Edwards recharge features, he said in a recent interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It could also contaminate nearby wells, which are primarily in the Trinity Aquifer, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say it\u2019s highly likely that discharge water from that septic system finds its way there,\u201d Bertetti said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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But while the authority doesn\u2019t have an official position on the fee waiver, he\u00a0said he personally believes the burden shouldn\u2019t be on other SAWS customers to foot the bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a water quality perspective, getting hooked up to the sewer system is the is probably the right choice,\u201d Bertetti said. \u201cIt\u2019s too bad that the developer didn\u2019t make the effort and spend the money to do that in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Colliander, a member\u00a0of the Villas at Timberwood Homeowners Association, walks by a gated area for the subdivision\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-453203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453203","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=453203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}