County, water district at odds

Restrictive language in water protection rules has commissioners wary

Denton Record Chronicle
07:07 AM CDT on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 By Bj Lewis / Staff Writer

Denton County officials continued Tuesday to tinker with documents regulating the protection of the Lewisville Lake watershed in an agreement with the Upper Trinity Regional Water District.

District officials approached county commissioners about a year ago to discuss watershed protection and later proposed rules and guidelines to the county. Since then, county officials have sought to make the guidelines more practical for the county, developers and residents.

“Upper Trinity sent a couple of documents, guidelines and a resolution saying Denton County supported what they were trying to do,” said County Judge Mary Horn. “While we do, some things in the guidelines I thought were too restrictive. It’s important to protect our watershed but we don’t want to stifle development; there has to be a happy middle ground.”

Representatives from the water district plan to address the commissioners’ concerns at a future meeting, but a date has not been scheduled, Horn said.

After the meeting, Bennett Howell, director of public works and engineering, gave an example of one possibly restrictive part in Upper Trinity’s proposal: The water district wants no development in the flood plain, instead allowing it to grow naturally.

“On paper, that looks pretty good — more plants, more green space,” Howell said. “What if someone buys property on the lake that has a flood plain designated between the lake and their property? If you can’t go in and maintain it and mow it … it doesn’t seem practical to buy lakefront property when you can’t see the lake.”

Another concern was the placement of buffer zones beyond the flood plain.

“Then you start encroaching on people’s private property, and that gets kind of difficult at times,” Howell said.

If rules are too stringent, residents will complain, he said.

“This process may go back and forth a number of times before we work out a document both parties will agree to,” Howell said. “We’re all trying to protect the lake both as a recreational lake and drinking water source for the various communities in Denton County.”