P&Z approves first Town Creek plat in nine minutes, no objections to development

The Kerrville Planning and Zoning Commission approved the first final plat for D.R. Horton’s Town Creek development Thursday, Oct. 1, in a meeting that lasted about nine minutes. It was one of the commission’s fastest meetings of the year.

Four commissioners voted to approve the Town Creek Unit 1 final plat with staff’s conditions of approval. Three members were absent, and no one spoke in opposition.

That four-member quorum stood in contrast to this summer, when the commission couldn’t muster enough members to act on the project’s preliminary plat. Under state law, that plat was approved automatically.

Unit 1 covers 30.965 acres near the Kerrville Sports Complex and includes the development’s first 100 residential lots, along with streets and infrastructure. The applicant is Continental Homes of Texas, L.P., a D.R. Horton subsidiary. City staff described it as “the first final plat of many” for Town Creek, which was earlier reported to include more than 500 homes.

The approval doesn’t mean construction is imminent. The plat can’t be recorded until the developer meets eight conditions, the most significant of which stems from the July 16 flood. The developer must update and resubmit the preliminary plat to address “changed site conditions from the recent Town Creek flooding,” including:

• New specifications for the low-water crossing where the development’s collector road meets Town Creek Road
• A new intersection at the northwest corner of the development, connecting an interior residential street to Town Creek Road so neighboring properties have a second way out during future flooding
• A no-objection letter from TxDOT confirming the project’s current traffic impact analysis is still acceptable
• According to staff, the developer has committed to widening the existing crossing at Town Creek Road to collector-road width and adding the secondary access point.

Before recording, the developer must also:

• Get civil plans for Unit 1 signed off by the city’s Engineering Department
• Provide a drainage approval letter from a third-party reviewer
• Confirm utility providers agree with the easements shown
• Get street names approved by city GIS and Kerr County 9-1-1
• Pay parkland fees under Ordinance 2022-01
• Either finish and have the city accept all public improvements, or sign a subdivision improvement agreement for remaining surface work (city code does not allow underground work to be deferred)
• A tree preservation permit is also required before any clearing or grading begins.

Under Texas law, plat approval is largely ministerial. If a plat meets the city’s adopted rules, the commission must approve it, though it may attach conditions. It cannot reject a compliant plat because of opposition to the development itself.