COUNTY ATTORNEY WILL TESTIFY IN AUSTIN AGAINST WEAKENING COLONIAS REGULATIONS
The Texas Senate Committee on
International Relations and Trade will conduct hearings aimed at strengthening
state law that prevents the creation of new colonias lacking basic
water/wastewater infrastructure. The hearings come in response to recent
proposals to water down existing colonias legislation.
The
legislation, known as Economically Distressed Areas Program ("EDAP"), was originally
enacted in 1989 and made it illegal for land owners to create residential
sub-divisions without water and sewage service in the outlying areas of the
counties. Among other requirements, land owners had to comply with a "build-it
or bond-it" provision, which required them to either build the necessary
infrastructure before the sale of the plots, or post a financial assurance to guarantee
that they would build it within the time declared in their plans.
Last
year a bill was filed which would have limited developers' financial
responsibility to install water supply or sewer facilities to no more than
three years.
El Paso
County Attorney José Rodríguez believes the proposed amendment would have opened
the door for the development of new colonias, creating new problems that will
later have to be resolved by the intervention of individual homeowners and
taxpayers' money.
"The
Model Rules and the EDAP program have efficiently stopped the development of
new colonias in El Paso
County for over a decade.
The State needs to be informed that the proposed changes will endanger the
viability of the program", said County Attorney José Rodríguez.
"The State
needs to not only continue with the current program, but to also approve new
legislation which gives county government legal authority to regulate land
development and enact basic plumbing, fire and building codes".
Under
current Texas
law, county governments do not have land use powers to secure the orderly and
healthy development of residential areas outside city limits.
"Some of
the most severe problems El Paso County residents suffer, like flooding in the Mowad and
Sparks sub-divisions, and the establishment of
environmentally dangerous businesses next to residential areas, arise from the County Commissioner's
inability to enact appropriate rules", explained Rodríguez.
"I will
request that the Texas Legislature give county government more legal powers to
guarantee its residents the quality of life that every citizen in the United
States deserves", concluded Rodríguez.
El Paso
County Attorney José Rodríguez, along with Assistant County Attorney Erich Morales, will testify in front of the Senate
Committee on International Relations and Trade in Austin on Tuesday October 24, 2006 at 9:00
AM.
WHO: El Paso County Attorney José R. Rodríguez
WHAT: Colonias Regulation Testimony
WHEN: Tuesday October 24, 2006 at 9:00 AM
WHERE: Capitol Extension, Room
E1.012
Austin, TX.
- 30 -
For those interested members
of the media, County
Attorney José Rodríguez
will be available for interviews all day Friday October 20, 2006. He will be
out of town next week until Wednesday. To schedule an interview, please call Elhiu Dominguez at 546-2016.
Colonias Regulation Revised Press Release.pdf
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