Bridge plan causes stir in Homestead
Bridge at Great Divide Drive low-water crossing included in approved county bond.
More than a dozen residents spoke during the Nov. 14 Bee Cave City Council meeting, most in favor of the city of Bee Cave annexing the Great Divide Drive low-water crossing. No action was taken, but the City Council will continue to hear feedback at future meetings.
Mayor Pro Tem Bill Goodwin said he asked for a discussion on the annexation of the low-water crossing because, he said, “it is now time to accept the responsibility” for the short stretch of road bordered on both sides by the city limits. Annexation would likely halt construction of a multimillion-dollar bridge included in the recently passed Travis County bond.
“The police have monitored the crossing, and so for all practical purposes it’s considered part of the city,” Goodwin said, expressing offense at the taxpayer-borne cost of the county’s proposed bridge. “I don’t want to get tacked with this level of expense in the future for 200 houses elsewhere in the county.”
Council Member Tom Matzen asked, if the annexation took place, whether the city would be liable if a car were swept off the road at the low-water crossing. City Attorney Patty Akers said the city’s liability would be more political and monetary than it would be legal liability.
Of the 17 residents who spoke before the council, two were in favor of the construction of the county-planned bridge.
A couple of the residents said they might like to see something improved at the crossing — but something at less cost and size than the county’s planned bridge.
Other residents, speaking in favor of annexation, expressed displeasure with the cost of the bridge, concern for the possible degradation of the character of the community and worry that the bridge would create an avenue to development around the historically independent community of the Homestead.
“I do live in the Homestead, and it has a wonderful quaint country feel when you come down to the low-water crossing,” resident Michelle Williams told the council. “In the 20 years I’ve lived there, there’s never once been a single problem that happened in the low-water crossing. No one’s been hurt, no cars have been washed down into the creek. The worst I can remember is being flooded getting into the neighborhood for four hours . ... We’re all well-educated, we know not to drive around.”
A couple residents said they felt the opinion of the county should not be discounted.
“We have a cost/benefit analysis that we can do,” Homestead resident Snehanshu Shah said. “I don’t know that we need a gigantic bridge. I don’t think we know what the solution yet is. But maybe what we can do is postpone the annexation. There’s $700,000 allocated to come up with a solution — why don’t we use that? You as the council members have the ability to annex this any time you want. So if you look at what the county is coming up with and it’s not what the citizens want, it can be annexed. But I think it behooves to take advantage of the money put in front of us and look at solutions.”