Devine City Council fields request for road, utility line extension

Michael Carson of Starson Investments LLC addresses the Devine City Council.

Michael Carson of Starson Investments, LLC, was directed to the Planning and Zoning Board after the Devine City Council heard his request for the extension of Dixon Drive and water and sewer lines at the meeting on January 26.
Starson Investments recently purchased just over five acres beside Tractor Supply on Highway 132 with plans to develop a subdivision.
“We’re wanting to bring in some multi-family, single family-type development in that immediate area,” Carson said. “Put anywhere from five to eight dwellings, whether that’s a multi-family type thing or single-family platted on one lot.”
In order to facilitate the subdivision, Carson requested that the City extend Dixon Dr. by up to 850 feet behind Tractor Supply, as well as water and sewer lines, at the City’s expense.
“Alternatively, if it doesn’t make any sense for the City to take on a road project, water, sewer would be a great help,” Carson said, noting that the property had road access off Hwy. 132. “It’s really just getting water, sewer to the property would benefit us in getting this to be an affordable project.”
Carson said housing development in the City is slow mainly because it’s cost-prohibitive.
“It takes time, it takes money, it takes commitment to the town,” Carson said.
He provided renderings of both single-family and multi-family housing and said the company would prefer to build that kind of housing over an apartment complex.
” We feel that the City, or at least the citizens, would like something more like this where they have a yard, something to call home rather than just living right on top of each other,” Carson said.
Carson also provided information from the Department of Housing and Urban Development showing the fair market rate for a two-bedroom unit in Medina County rising from $814 in fiscal year 2020 to $866 in fiscal year 2021.
“It may be skewed a little bit by Castroville because I know they probably have higher rents than Devine and the surrounding areas, but it gives a good indication of what we would probably be around for a two-bedroom, three-bedroom if that’s what we were to put out there,” Carson said.
A motion by District 1 Councilman Rufino “Flipper” Vega and District 5 Councilwoman Debra Randall to send Carson’s request to the Planning and Zoning Board for review, as well as to get price estimates on the cost of extending Dixon Dr. and utility lines from the City’s engineering firm, passed unanimously with support from District 2 Councilman Steve Lopez, District 3 Councilman David Espinosa, and District 4 Councilwoman Kathy Lawler.
By Marly Davis
Staff Writer