Beginning today, developers who work in land governed by the city of Austin and Travis County can work with one office for subdivision applications, fees and review processes. The office will accept applications and fees; adopt joint application forms for preliminary and final plats; and offer a consolidated review within 28 days of receiving a complete application. It covers the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction and areas of limited purpose annexation in Travis County.
Until now, developers with projects in Austin's extraterritorial jurisdiction in unincorporated areas of Travis County had to work the city and county separately. It was not unusual for developers to get conflicting information and comments from each entity. Now, when there's a conflict, city and county officials will work it out before returning a comment sheet to the developer.
The idea of the single office is to speed up the development process where the city and county share jurisdiction and make it more efficient. It's the result of House Bill 1445, which the Texas Legislature passed in its 2001 session. The deadline for meeting the bill's requirements was April 1. Those wanting to make applications under the previous format can do so through April.
Austin and Travis County are among the first municipalities in the state to comply with the law. Travis County continues to work with other communities on similar agreements as is Austin.
Dominic Chavez, the governmental liaison for the Real Estate Council of Austin, tells GlobeSt.com that the new office should help developers. RECA has worked with the city and county as they crafted the inter-local agreement for the office. "All in all, given the time constraints and enormity of consolidating, they've done a tremendous jobs of coming to where they are now," he assesses.
Chavez says disagreements between city and county staffs will go all the way up the chain of command to top officials if necessary. And, the new office is a good step, but it's not the end of the road. The city and county are working to develop common regulations for their shared jurisdictions. "Eventually, they want to get to a consolidated set of regulations," he says. "We've asked them to keep working toward that.
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