Council OKs rezoning for pump station
200 homes in District 10 service area will receive better water pressure.
Improved water pressure is coming down the pipes for more than 200 homes in the Travis County Water Control and Improvement District 10 service area.
The West Lake Hills City Council and Board of Adjustment approved rezoning and several variances on Feb. 8 so the district can build a pump station on a 1.97-acre property off of Bee Cave Road.
The station would connect with a line planned to be built down Redbud Trail and serve residents all the way up to Nob Hill Circle and west Yaupon Valley Road, Flintridge Road, Circle Ridge Drive and a portion of Wildcat Hollow.
The pump station, which costs approximately $6 million according to Dannenbaum Engineering consultant Tom Arndt, will be funded by a nearly $46 million water district bond approved by voters in 2015. Arndt said the team is hopeful the whole system will be completed in two to two and a half years. The water line, costing approximately $3 million, will be built before the pump station, he said.
To build the project, two trees with a trunk diameter greater than 14 inches will have to be removed.
The project will feature a parking lot, which will largely go unoccupied except for a couple water district employees and the occasional customer until the district’s monthly board meetings. The tract itself requires a variance since it’s just under the required 2 acres for a government, utility and institutional tract, and then the hydropneumatic tanks require a variance since they need 6,000 gallons of storage, which is 4,000 gallons more than an old city ordinance dictates.
In addition, variances had to be granted for the tank’s proximity to residential property lines, which are within 80 feet of the tank rather than 100.
“The walls will be 12 feet with a peaked roof, and it will be insulated for sound,” Arndt said at the meeting. “Once a day, we’ll have to run an emergency generator per (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) rules for 20 or 30 minutes.”
Council consensus was that, despite the needed variances, the site for the pump station and new water district headquarters in an existing house on site are ideal for the district’s needs.
“This is almost a perfect site,” Mayor Linda Anthony said. “I’m confident they’ll be able to work out driveway issues with adjacent property owners. ... The impact is going to be minimal, and with the gas line, that means they don’t have to store diesel on the site, which is huge.”
Both the adjustment board and the City Council unanimously approved the rezoning.