Worries About Christmas Village Continue From Carmine Residents

Three citizens spoke at last Thursday’s Fayette County Commissioners Court meeting against the proposed Christmas market and resort development near Carmine.

California developer Dirk Winter presented plans for the 150-acre resort to Commissioners on Feb. 25. The project has attracted lots of attention since then. Citizens packed the Carmine City Council meeting on March 14 after learning that the 150-acre development would get water from the City of Carmine.

The three who spoke to Commissioners last Thursday raised concerns about how the development would affect traffic and other businesses in the area.

One of them, Vicki Rudloff, asked commissioners to prevent the development through restrictive zoning. However, Fayette County does not have any zoning authority under state law, unlike cities, which can enact zoning ordinances to regulate property use.

“We have too many small businesses struggling as it is,” Rudloff said. “Even though they have the antiques festivals, the community of Round Top struggles most of the rest of the year. We have many great businesses and new people that we need to support. His business coming in will not support them. It will distract from them.”

Rudloff said she believes the development will only bring part-time, low-paying jobs.

“It’s all about his pocket and not the community,” she said.

“This guy does not need to be here,” Rudloff added. “He is not our kind of people. I have talked to the chamber of commerce and about 30 businesses in the communities he has been in, and they all say the same thing. He has hurt them in the long run. What he says and what he does are never the same thing.”

Gene Goolsby, a retired transportation engineer with the Texas A&M University Transportation Institute, asked Commissioners to require a traffic impact analysis performed by a qualified traffic engineering consultant.

“The development will be served by two-lane roadways, Hwy. 237 and Spur 458, and the marginally two-lane road of W. Fuchs Rd., which has two elbow turns in it and a dangerous intersection with 237,” Goolsby said. “I think there are serious transportation traffic engineering concerns with that development.

Marcia Hingtgen, who lives near the proposed development, said the resort will change the landscape on Fuchs Rd.

“The proposed development will be in a quiet, rural neighborhood that has existed with families, livestock, crops and wildlife for many decades,” Hingtgen said. “Based upon articles by the developer’s previous similar properties, this will be a complete upheaval of the quality of life in this community.”

Hingtgen said the Christmas market could be built tastefully, but she said Fuchs Rd. is the wrong location for such a development.

“If the developers do not make necessary adjustments to their plans that will accommodate the environment in which it intends to peaceably coexist, and there is excessive noise, lights, traffic congestion or safety issues, will there be an avenue available to submit legitimate complaints for arbitration between the developer and members of the community?” Hingtgen asked.

Hingtgen said she thinks there should be some way for the county to “gain control of the floodgates that are already open.” She asked the commissioners to keep citizens informed about the development by posting updates on the County website.

Later in the meeting, commissioners considered conditional approval of a planned 136-acre subdivision on Nassau Rd. in Pct. 2. It was one of four property divisions that were on the agenda for approval that day. The developers, Central Texas Development LLC of Houston, plan to divide the property into 17 residential lots.

“We live in Houston and we’re starting to spend a lot of time in the Round Top area,” said Eduardo Sanchez, one of the developers. “We decided to do a friends-and-family type of quaint development near town and we’re excited to get involved.”

During the discussion, Rudloff encouraged the developers to offer affordable housing.

“We’ve got enough houses all over the place,” Rudloff said. “We need affordable houses. People who actually live here, who have children here, who want to stay here would like to have a home, and not million dollar homes so they end up leaving the community.”

“The comments are well received,” said County Judge Joe Weber. “But we’re not in the business of telling people what they can and can’t do with their property.”

Changes to the County’s subdivision regulations in recent years have imposed requirements for new lots to have public road access, mainly so that emergency services like EMS can reach residents who need care.

The development on Nassau Rd. calls for a public road that the developers will build at their expense according to county specifications. After a warranty period, the road will be handed over to Fayette County for future maintenance. This is the standard procedure in Fayette County for developments in unincorporated areas.

Pct. 2 Commissioner Luke Sternadel asked the other commissioners if they had anything to add to the discussion.

“If they keep building roads in your precinct, you’re going to have more road miles than I do pretty soon,” said Pct. 3 Commissioner Harvey Berckenhoff, who is currently responsible for more miles of county roads than each of the other three commissioners.

Sternadel acknowledged the trend.

“Then I’ll need more money than you,” Sternadel said.