Monday, Aug. 23, the Sealy City Council voted 3-2 to impose a property development moratorium on projects that require water taps after the city announced earlier in the month a lack of water tap connections.

Council met twice last week and again Monday at the W. E. Hill Community Center to discuss and eventually establish a 120-day moratorium although it may not need to last the full length.

“I heard that ‘Bilski is against growth, and that’s what all this is about.’ And that is not it. I want to make sure that’s very clear,” Sealy Mayor Carolyn Bilski said during the Aug. 16 special meeting. “We’re not against growth. We want to be responsible to our developers. We want to be responsible to the citizens that already are here paying taxes and have services”

The city staff emphasized the moratorium is a preventative measure meant to responsibly manage growth rather than deter it.

“One of the things I want to remind everybody is (that) this (moratorium) is based on new development that requires water taps,” explained Sealy City Manager Warren Escovy last Tuesday. “There is a limited number of taps, and the city council has already agreed to build a $1.8 million well and we’re also working with (the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) TCEQ on what we call a rerate program, so there may be some relief in about three months.”

City Attorney and Chief Legal Advisor Tim Kirwin reported that the city has reached out to TCEQ for relief and that a favorable response would result in the moratorium being lifted.

“They have 90 days to respond to the city, and that should relinquish about one thousand new taps to the city. And that would probably satisfy everything – plus some – until we have that new well online in hopefully twelve months,” Kirwin said last Tuesday. “If for some reason we hear back from the TCEQ sooner, we would then approach the city to repeal that ordinance and moratorium as quickly as possible.”

Bilski emphasized that this moratorium is a preventative measure in response to rapid growth.

“The Retreat is 194 units, Harvest Moon is 76, Sealy Oaks (is) 20, Evlyn Courts is four and the RV park will be 40. We are working with all of these developers to understand the urgency of this matter,” Bilski said Aug. 17. “That’s a lot in a very short period of time and thankfully I think we’ve got quality growth coming.”

While some of the staff and council members expressed that the moratorium is a preventative action that will likely only be necessary to protect the city, others were more hesitant to accept it as positive.

“To me, we haven’t gone through all the other options,” Councilmember Adam Burttschell said during last Tuesday’s regular meeting. “This would bring an unnecessary amount of uncertainty to our community, not only to developers but also to corporations that are looking to potentially relocate here.”

During the special meeting Aug. 23, Councilmember Dee Anne Lerma reciprocated the thoughts of Burttschell.

“I’m voting no because I served on the Sealy EDC for two years and learned that such actions would stain my city’s reputation with its citizens and business community,” said Lerma. “I’m certain that our strong city will recover from this moratorium and that our water tap issue will be resolved but the headlines will always read ‘moratorium.’”