Hays County

Warning lights for overdevelopment are flashing red all over Hays County. Subdivisions are being built or proposed in unincorporated areas where county officials have less authority than city officials to require sustainable development. Groundwater officials don’t have enough authority to make sure that the county's aquifers aren’t overpumped. The shrinking amount of green space can't be preserved as parks or conservation easements because of limited resources. And new highways would bring even more growth into areas already overstressed by existing development. There's no question that Hays County will keep growing. The real question is whether it will grow in a good way.

WHAT WE DO: In 2023, we organized the Hays County Growth Talk, which was co-sponsored by Clean Water Action, Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, San Marcos River Foundation, Save Our Springs Alliance, and The Watershed Association. Our panel discussion included Douglas Wierman (seated left), Jenna Walker (seated center), and Robert Mace (standing), all with the the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, as well as Jay Blazek Crossley from Farm&City and Scott Way from the Hays County Parks & Open Space Advisory Commission.    

WHAT'S THE LATEST? In 2024, Austin officials rejected a request by Milestone to extend the city's water and wastewater service to Hays Commons. However, the developer is continuing discussions with the city about a revised request. On a separate track, Milestone also has applied to TCEQ for a permit that would allow it to irrigate Hays Commons' wastewater onsite. TCEQ's staff has already written a draft permit, which local landowners are challenging in a contested case hearing.

WHAT'S HAPPENING? Milestone Community Builders is planning a high-density subdivision, called Hays Commons, to built on a 498-acre property at the intersection of SH 45 and RM 1626. The development would be located north of the city of Hays and west of Manchaca, and along the Hays-Travis county line. Milestone's exact plans have fluctuated, but the developer has proposed building 700 single-family homes and 12 acres of commercial space in Hays Commons, with a projected population of 2,500 people. Milestone has been pursuing two options to get water and wastewater service for its subdivision. In one option, Hays Commons would get both water and wastewater service from Austin's utility lines, which would be extended to the development. If Milestone is unable to get utility service from Austin, its other option is to get a TLAP wastewater irrigation permit from TCEQ and water pumping permit from the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District (BSEACD). Milestone has already applied to TCEQ for the TLAP permit, which would allow Hays Commons' treated wastewater to be irrigated over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone. The developer has not yet applied to BSEACD for water pumping permits at this time.

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? If you wanted to build a big subdivision in a really bad place, where would you put it? Would you build it in a place with lots of rocky gaps and cracks on the ground that would allow dirty surface water to seep into the Edwards Aquifer, which provides water for hundreds of residential wells as well as Barton Springs Pool? Unfortunately, this is exactly where Milestone wants to build Hays Commons. This subdivision would be located over the Recharge Zone for the Edwards Aquifer and the Barton Springs Watershed; along Little Bear Creek, which is in the watershed for Onion Creek (a pristine stream); and in the middle of hundreds of acres protected from development in Austin's Water Quality Protection Lands program.

The northern half of the Hays Commons tract is in Austin’s Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) area. The southern half was formerly in Austin’s ETJ, and then in the ETJ for the city of Hays, but it’s currently in an unincorporated area of Hays County. Because cities are able to enforce some of their regulations in ETJ areas, Austin requires new developments in the Recharge Zone to follow the Save Our Springs (SOS) Ordinance. The ordinance limits the amount of impervious cover in new construction over the Recharge Zone to no more than 15 percent of a development's total area. The city of Hays has the same requirement for properties in its ETJ that are over the Recharge Zone.

Unfortunately, SB 2038, passed by the Texas Legislature in 2023, now allows landowners to withdraw their properties from ETJ areas. Milestone has already withdrawn the southern half of the Hays Commons tract from the city of Hays' ETJ, and it is currently pursung a TLAP wastewater irrigation permit with TCEQ. Milestone has left the northern half of Hays Commons in Austin's ETJ for the time being. In 2024 the developer filed a Service Extension Request (SER) with Austin so that Hays Commons could be connected to the city's water and wastewater lines. As a condition of remaining in Austin's ETJ, Milestone also insisted that the city allow it to build Hays Commons to 25 percent impervious cover, which would have required an unprecedented amendment to the SOS Ordinance. Because of coordinated advocacy by Save Our Streams, our coalition partners, and local landowners, Austin officials rejected the SOS amendment. Milestone has had discussions with the city sincd then about a revised Service Extension Request.  

If Milestone's negotiations with Austin are unsuccessful, its other option for providing wastewater service to Hays Commons is to get a TLAP permit from TCEQ that would allow onsite sprinklers to spray treated wastewater onto dedicated irrigation fields. TCEQ's staff has already written a draft permit for Hays Commons, which adjacent landowners have challenged by requesting a contest case hearing. Filing the TLAP application meant that  Milestone also had to  submit an application to TCEQ to create a Municipal Utility District (MUD), which would be the entity that would operate the TLAP wastewater facility. TCEQ's commissioners have approved the creation of the Hays Commons MUD. If Milestone is uable to connect to Austin's water lines, it would then need to rely on the existing wells that were previously drilled on the Hays Commons property. In order to use these wells, Milestone would have to apply to BSEACD for pumping permits, but it has not done so at this time. 

WHAT'S THE LATEST? At the end of the 2025 Legislative Session, Governor Greg Abbott vetoed SB 1253, which would have given the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District the same powers as other GCDs in the state. The bill was necessary so that Hays Trinity could properly regulate permit-holders like Aqua Texas that have repeatedly pumped more from their wells than allowed. You can read more in this Texas Monthly story. 

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? Most Hays County residents rely on wells for their water supply. On the west side of the county, the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District issues permits for wells drilled into the Trinity Aquifer, while the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District (BSEACD) manages well permits on the east side. But while the two districts have equal responsibility for managing the county’s water supply, they don’t have equal authority. When the Texas Legislature created the Hays Trinity GCD in 1999, it hobbled the district with an inadequate and unreliable funding structure, and with weaker provisions that deviate from the laws governing other groundwater conservation districts in the state.

Aqua Texas has pumped more water from its well that serves Woodcreek (above) than its permit from Hays Trinity GCD allows. The company's overpumping is one of the reasons that the Jacobs Well spring has gone dry in recent years. 

As a result, the Hays Trinity GCD has had difficulties with well owners who won’t comply with their permits. The investor-owned water utility Aqua Texas overpumped its permit for a well at Woodcreek in northern Hays County by 90 million gallons in 2022. and by 70 million gallons in 2023. The company's overpumping at Woodcreek was one of the reasons why the nearby spring at Jacobs Well went dry for an extended period.Yet rather than agreeing to follow the rules that the Hays Trinity GCD has established to benefit all of its permit holders, Aqua Texas actually filed suit to reduce the district’s already restricted authority. Aqua Texas is a unit of Pennsylvania-based Essential Utilities, which has a market capitalization of $10 billion — much, much larger than Hays Trinity GCD’s annual budget. You can learn more about the Aqua Texas controversy from our partners at The Watershed Association: here, here, here, and here.)

WHAT'S THE LATEST? A road bond passed by Hays County voters in November 2024 would have allocated $7 million to a design study for SH 45, but was invalidated in 2025 as the result of a lawsuit brought by county residents who alleged that Hays commissioners failed to follow proper procedures when they placed the bond on the ballot. The Hays County Commissioners Court is currently exploring new ways to fund the projects that would have been supported by the bond.

WHAT'S HAPPENING? In 2023, the Hays County Commissioners Court and the Buda City Council started a feasibility study on building a new roadway that would connect State Highway 45 between RM 1626 and Interstate 45. The southwest section of SH 45 currently ends at RM 1626, while the southeast section ends at I-35. Three open houses were held as part of the feasibility study in which planners asked for the public's input and presented initial routes.  Hays County commissioners placed a $440 million road bond on the November 2024 ballot that would have funded 21 projects, including a followup design study for SH 45. While the bond was approved, the vote  was invalidated in a lawsuit filed by Hays residents because of procedural errors in the commissioners' deliberations on the bond.

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? Our organization, as Save Barton Creek Association, has been engaged in advocacy on the southwest section of SH 45 for decades  We filed suit in 1988 against the original poan for what was then called the "Outer Loop" for Austin, because its proposed route would have severely harmed water quality in the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone. The section of SH 45 that was eventually built between Mopac (Loop 1) and RM 1626 is subject to requirements contained in a consent decree reached between the Texas Department of Transportation and the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Authority, joined by Save Texas Streams. One of the requirements is that this Parkway section of SH 45 cannot be expanded beyond its current lanes. However, traffic on the Parkway segment between Mopac and RM 1626 would be sharply increased if it were to be connected to a new Extension segment of SH 45 between RM 1626 and I-35. The increased traffic would also lead to an increase in runoff pollution from the Parkway segment, which would flow over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone. Increased traffic will certainly happen if the proposed Extension is built, because it would turn the northwest and southwest segments of SH 45, combined with Mopac, into a western bypass for Interstate 35.