At Monday morning’s regular meeting of the Austin County Commissioners Court, a workshop was scheduled for Feb. 8 to discuss subdivision regulations with all the new homes coming up in the county.

Austin County Judge Tim Lapham said the issue they have been running into is some developers building narrow lots that are very deep.

“When you put the aerobic septic system which most of them lined up with, they are blowing not only on the neighbors but onto two or three (more properties) when we have winds like we did last night,” Lapham said Monday.

The judge said he had a suggestion that was less extreme than some other counties do.

“Some of their subdivision regulations say if you have a well and a septic (system) on a lot, the lot has to be three acres. I do not think we want to go that drastic. If we can get away from these long shotgun lots, then we could go in with a ratio of depth to width to make them a little bit wider, to give them more room to put the septic system in.” Lapham said. “That would help us out and help out with the complaints a lot.”

County Commissioner Precinct 1 Mark Lamp said that most developers use retention ponds.

“Which actually regulates the property that they have and they are spending top money doing all this; building roads, putting in retention,” Lamp said. “The same people go ahead and buy an acre lot, an acre next to them or an acre and a half-tract of land next to them and put in a well and septic system in and they do not have to go through the scrutiny.”

Lamp said he sees a recurring issue with properties that are sold cheaply.

“They buy a piece of property because it is cheap, they buy it in the worst-case scenario and then they expect us, commissioners court, to dig the ditches out and spend county tax dollars,” Lamp said. “They are not trying to foot the bill. They are trying to pass the buck.”

A workshop will be held on the next court date, Feb. 8, to further discuss the subdivision regulations, giving the commissioners time to do more research.

During the petitions or requests portion of the meeting, Lamp spoke as a citizen regarding a subdivision being built on Grove Road. He said the citizens’ concerns are the road, drainage and general infrastructure.

“The state of Texas allows us to come in and put a drainage district in and what the drainage district is it allows us to get a competent engineer to be paid to help us set up plans to go ahead and allow this,” Lamp said.

He said this would help with people who build properties then expect the commissioners to come and dig all their ditches out.

“I think commissioners should read over it and maybe it is something we can talk about in the future. But we have no way to control a person when they build a house on one acre to regulate them,” Lamp said. “Those same people come to us and want us to regulate subdivisions and how the drainage is on that.”

Lamp believes setting up districts would place everyone on a level playing field.

“The only way to do that is for us to possibly put in a drainage district and once we do this drainage district then everybody has to see how their piece of land fits into the puzzle,” Lamp said. “I cannot drain property that you build a home in on a low spot.”

Commissioners also approved setting a public hearing to erect a stop sign at the intersection of Skalak and Tiemann roads in Austin County by Commissioner Precinct 2 Bobby Rinn. He said he has received several emails from people in the community and requested a one-way stop sign.

A public hearing will be held at the next meeting of the commissioner’s court on Feb. 8, with a first by Rinn and second by Lamp. The motion passed unanimously.