City staff persons can attempt to cause unnecessary expense to a developer and the eventual home owners within a development.  For example, while obtaining entitlements for a recent land development in the City of Austin, a city case manager told us that we would have to pay into an escrow account an amount of money sufficient to maintain three ponds within our project for a 2-year maintenance period.  In addition, this staff person wanted us to provide restrictive covenants that would place the long term burden of maintenance on the eventual home owners within the development.

 We found that the city code did not require a developer to maintain ponds within this type of development.  Although the city case manager had made written comments requiring us to pay money for maintenance, there was no basis in the code for this expense!  The code requires the City of Austin to maintain the ponds serving this development.

 We showed the reviewer the portion of the code that covered maintenance of ponds in this type of development (and in this area).  The reviewer had to admit we were right, and that we would not be required to pay money for maintenance of the ponds.  However, he had a reason why he initially told us we would have to pay for maintenance.  He said “The City Council made a mistake, there is not enough funding for the city to maintain these ponds.” Grudgingly, he concurred with us that he did not really have the authority to require us to pay for pond maintenance.  I am happy to say that this issue was resolved in our favor.

 The lesson from this experience is to check the basis in the code for the requirements made by reviewers.  The staff reviewer may be asking for something he would like to see, but is not really a requirement.  We always strive to maintain good relationships with the city staff, especially the higher-up staff.  But when it comes to staff requests that are going to cost us money and are not requirements, we gently remind the staff person of what the code actually says.  Although at times we have had to find satisfaction from a person in a supervisory position, when we know we are right we have always succeeded in obtaining the correct reading of the code.

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