By Tim Fleischer
Editor-in-Chief
Salado aldermen will discuss at their 6:30 p.m. July 21 meeting annexation and disannexation of properties on opposite ends of the Village.
The board will discuss a development agreement with QT South LLC for the development of 5.87 acres of land located at the northwest corner of the intersection of FM 2484 and I-35.
The land will be developed as Quick Trip Travel Center. According to the agenda package, “In addition to items one would typically find in a convenience store, the facility will feature a full-service kitchen along with a complete menu of grab and to fresh food items.”
The Quick Trip is expected to employ 50 people.
The proposed development agreement requires the annexation of property into the Village. It prohibits overnight truck parking.
It also allows a 100 foot tall free-standing sign on the property. The current sign ordinance limits on-location signs on I-35 to be no taller than 20 foot.
The pylon sign for the Bucees in Bastrop is 70 foot tall with a sign facing of 314 square feet. There was no material in the agenda packet on the sign face size for the Quick Trip sign.
The property will be served by a wastewater treatment plant on the 64 acres that comprises the Salado Center development.
QT South LLC is purchasing 5.87 acres of a 57.08 acre tract owned by CELTS International.
CELTS International and Pampa Investment Group, LP together own 64 acres at the corner of FM 2484 and I-35 to be developed as the Salado Center.
Salado Center, according to a July 2021 draft development agreement between the Village of Salado and CELTS International and Pampa Investment Group, would include the following: a convenience store, seven fast food restaurants, two sit-down restaurants, a senior housing complex, a large retail store and additional smaller retail spaces with two lift stations, wastewater collections lines and one wastewater treatment plant with an initial treatment capacity of 50,000 gallons per day.
According to the 2021 draft Development Agreement, the Village of Salado would provide $3.39 million in waived impact fees.
The developer would build the wastewater treatment and collection system at a total cost of $5.5 million. Of that, $480,000 would be for lift station, $822,236 would be for collection lines and $4,197,764 for the wastewater treatment plant and water line.
The Village would also waive all development application fees.
The village would also purchase the wastewater infrastructure after annexation of the property for a cost of $5.5 million. The village would make payments of $100,000 to $175,000 over a nine years with a balloon payment of $4.3 million in the tenth year.
Aldermen will also discuss a petition calling for an election on the disannexation of property on the southeast side of Salado.
On Feb. 18, John Newman delivered a petition to the village to call for an election for the disannexation of property that would include the Sanctuary development, the Linda Ventura subdivision, Salado Oaks subdivision and Guess Dr.
The petition failed to meet the deadline to call for an election in May. The petition had 57 signatures. It called for the proposed disannexation to be placed on the ballot for the “next general election” of the Village.
The board will consider a resolution rejecting the petition calling for an election for disannexation of the property.
“The Village Administrator and Village Secretary reviewed the submitted Petition and determined that the Petition fails to meet at least one requirement set out by the Texas Local Government
Code: It must provide metes and bounds that accurately describe the area to be disannexed,” according to a letter from Joshua Katz from Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP, legal counsel for the Village. “The Petition includes a map and metes and bounds of the area it ostensibly proposes for disannexation, but they are not signed or sealed by a surveyor. The Village submitted these metes and bounds to a surveyor to determine whether they accurately describe the area shown on the Petition’s map.”
“However, the metes and bounds provided in the Petition not only do not describe the area shown on the map, they describe a map multiple overlapping sections and multiple areas that do not close (i.e., instead of producing a “box” depicting a parcel of land, a map made from the metes and bounds produces one or more sides are open-ended and therefore no parcel is depicted),”
“It is appropriate for the Village to adopt a resolution finding that the Petition is invalid, and that an election on disannexation as proposed by the petition cannot be ordered by the Mayor,” Katz stated.
The agenda includes
• Construction/final plat and construction plans for Sage Hill at Amity.
• Design of the Village of Salado All-Abilities Playground.
• Improvements to Bluff Circle Road
• Hiring two new school resource officers.
and amending the FY 2022 operating budget.
• Discuss authorizing police department to acquire two new patrol vehicles.
• Discuss proposal to hire two additional school resource officers.
• Discuss acquisition of solar powered LED stop signs for intersection of Williams Road and West Village Road.
• Discuss the development of FY 2023 operating budget.