By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A developer whose 60-acre project has been paused over concerns about sewer capacity
joined Monday’s tour of the city’s wastewater infrastructure and afterward praised city
officials for being open about water and wastewater issues.
Juan DeHoyos and Jesus Hernandez, with the development company Deroga LLC, were
among about 30 persons who accompanied city and county elected leaders on Monday’s
tour, which was led by City Manager Shawna Burkhart and City Public Works Director
Greg Velazquez.
At the tour’s first stop, a manhole on the northwest side of the Del Rio International
Airport, DeHoyos spoke with Velazquez and Jaime Kypuros, an engineer with Tetra
Tech, the company the city has hired to design a series of planned improvements to the
wastewater system.
DeHoyos asked about a series of “models” the city is running on north Del Rio
wastewater flows, models that may allow him to continue his planned development.
DeHoyos asked Kypuros when the city would begin the modeling.
“That is getting ready to get started. . . It’ll take a few weeks,” Kypuros said.
Velazquez said the city has run its own simulation “based on the number of homes”
planning to connect to the wastewater system.
“We actually introduced water to mimic the (sewage) from the amount of homes that are
going to be added, and (the flow through the pipe) came up about two inches, so it came
up above the ‘full’ line,” Velazquez said.
DeHoyos asked how many added homes the city’s simulation estimated, and Velazquez
said the simulation was based on an estimated additional 70 homes.
Velazquez and Burkhart described the situation as “a temporary moratorium” on new
development.
“We’re not saying no more development,” Velazquez said.
“It’s just a temporary moratorium,” Burkhart added.
Velazquez pointed out that city council would have to approve a total moratorium on
building.
“I need to make sure that the facts are there and the justification is there because a
moratorium has to go to council. Council’s the one that sets the moratorium. It can’t be
set by me or by the city manager. It has to be done by council, and in order for the
council to make the right decision, based on engineering modeling is going to tell us what
conditions we need to put for continued development. Can we develop another 120
homes or 220 homes or whatever it may be, then that might be our cap, and from there on
forward, the moratorium, but I can’t determine that until that modeling is done,”
Velazquez said.
The public works director also pointed out that the completion of the first phase of the
city’s planned improvements to the wastewater system will give the city “some leeway”
in decisions about how much future development can be allowed.
“But now, the whole project for Phase 1, you’re looking at close to 18 months, (after) we
get started with construction in the fall,” he added.
Burkhart also told tour participants, “Everybody is concerned about how this might affect
our air force base, and I have been in direct contact with Laughlin, and they said right
now that, at least in the next 24 months, our housing starts do not have to necessarily
increase to meet their current demand, so we do have that window to try to meet their
demand without negatively impacting them.”
After the tour, DeHoyos said he had a more positive outlook about the work the city
plans to do.
“I think we need to be positive. Yes, there are issues in the city, but I think we need to
forget about the past and support the city manager and the city council, and I think we
need to be more proactive, more vigilant of what’s going on as we move forward.
“I think the fact that they’re putting the issues out there, which is not a nice issue, that’s
gives them some credibility that they really want to address this issue,” DeHoyos said.
He went on, “I’ve been here since 1994, and because I got involved in development and
construction, now I’m getting involved. Before, I wasn’t even aware of this, so I think
let’s stay positive, let’s work together to improve the city and hopefully, we can deal with
this issue as soon as we can so we can continue growing.
“I want to stay positive, but I also want to monitor the city’s progress and make sure that
they continue moving forward in the right direction, and if they continue doing that,
they’ll have our support. If they don’t do it, we may push it another way,” the developer
added.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
