FORNEY, Texas — A proposed municipal utility district (MUD) south of Forney received a response from State Representative Keith Bell (R-Forney), including a request for an informational meeting from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality concerning the creation of Kaufman County Municipal Utility District No. 15.
FORNEY, Texas — A proposed municipal utility district (MUD) south of Forney received a response from State Representative Keith Bell (R-Forney), including a request for an informational meeting from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality concerning the creation of Kaufman County Municipal Utility District No. 15.
Rep. Bell requested an informational meeting in a letter to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Subsequently, in a letter on October 12, 2023, Rep. Bell requested an additional hearing on the application to install an on-site wastewater treatment plant with a proposed discharge of 700,000 daily gallons of wastewater.
TCEQ granted the request for a hearing on the development, and the meeting was held yesterday, December 14, 2023.
The proposal would create Kaufman County Municipal Utility District No. 15., containing 500 acres of land just south of the Forney City Limits at Quail Run and Markout Central. The land is in the City of Mesquite’s Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) and has been requested to have eminent domain and road powers.
A packed room for the hearing, those in attendance included residents near the proposed MUD, TCEQ officials, attorneys for the developers, Bellagio 443, LLC (the developers), as well as the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office and Forney ISD. County Judge Jakie Allen and Kaufman County Commissioner Skeet Phillips also attended.
Bellagio 443, LLC is a Wyoming-based company and is the developing arm of Megatel Homes.
One of the biggest concerns during the meeting was the traffic and what to do about the additional population compared to the two-lane road infrastructure in the proposed region. Concerns were also expressed concerning the 950 multi-family (apartment) units.
“This unplanned development needs to be thoroughly examined as traffic, construction, and headaches are already at an all-time high,” Rep. Bell told inForney.com.
That comment comes after the developer hadn’t done a traffic impact analysis and had no apparent plans to do so until required by the governing authorities.
The application for this proposal includes 950 apartments and over 1,100 homes. It’s estimated that over 700,000 gallons of wastewater will be treated daily. That led to questions about a wastewater treatment plant and the disposition of the grey water, whether to a tributary to the Trinity River or sprayed on top of the floodplain.
Regarding our schools, questions arose over space in the existing Forney ISD infrastructure and what this additional growth would do for an already rapidly growing region, with FISD Superintendent Dr. Justin Terry, preliminarily estimating approximately 1,170 students based upon the proposed density.
“As State Representative, I’ve called for this informational meeting; by statute and rule, this is all I have the power to do,” Rep. Bell told inForney.com.
“I will continue fighting to make sure that the concerns of our citizens are heard and acknowledged.”
Following the meeting, after the notice has been published, there is a 30-day window for written comments to be sent to the TCEQ for consideration. The TCEQ will create a draft technical memo and order, which will go to the commissioners and, at such time, will determine if there are any affected persons. If so, it will be forwarded to the State Office of Administrative Hearings for a contested case hearing, and upon final disposition, a proposal for decision will be issued and final.