Have a private landowner who has a 5 acre lot, with an existing home. It is not in a subdivision; is in the ETJ.

He wishes to construct a series of 6 duplex apartments behind the existing home. He wants to build these additional structures as rental/lease facilities for seniors, as assisted living.

Are there any relevant county regulations? He is not conveying any of his land to anyone else.

Thanks!

Granted I'm from Smallville, but I don't think that, at this point, your commissioners can stop him. You might e-mail Scott, but it seems to me that if he is in violation of your already passed subdivision regs, you may have a mandamus remedy or other civil action.

If he is not in violation of something already passed, I think he gets away with it. Now, you probably control the county road in front of the property, which means you also control access. Through health regs (most of which are state) you can possibly deal with sewage and water stuff. In other words, you can probably make his life miserable - but unless Taylor County has already done the paperwork.... :

Lisa L. Peterson
Nolan County Attorney

REALLY appreciate your reply! I've been coming to this conclusion myself. He's not in violation of any present regulations, and since he's not going to transfer any land, I don't think we can stop this property development. Let's hope the ambulances don't wear out our county road.
(To "e-mail Scott" always seems to be my inevitable last move. Poor Scott.)

Scott has always been wonderful about accepting questions; perhaps one day there will be one we can answer for him!
Lisa

Lisa L. Peterson
Nolan County Attorney

Scott's accepted the most lame, simple-minded, questions from me at the beginning of my post here (looking back from my vantage point of several years) and answered them in a way that always made me feel that I was doing fine, and was a good prosecutor.
You've been mighty helpful yourself, so the ability to answer some question from you, Lisa, is something I'm also looking forward to doing.

You should send him a honey-baked ham!

Scott never lets on how important he is, so when you do finally realize it, he's twice as impressive.

Yep, maybe I should send him a honey-baked ham!
Have you received a lot of them yourself, being a Superlawyer?

No one lobbed any food, unfortunately. I hasten to add that, despite my penchant for seafood, I'm glad no one saw fit to sling raw oysters. That would've been messy, and they're difficult to get out of the grill on the front of an amplifier.

Super Lawyers don't have those kinds of problems, as they are faster than a speeding shellfish.

Returning to the original inquiry, unless your county is subject to a very specialized statute, Etta, it sounds like your budding entrepreneur isn't subdividing his land such that the filing of a plat would be required. In the absence of such requisite platting, I don't think the county would have any ch. 232 regulatory authority. Overall, it appears that the regulatory scheme your fellow proposes would be subject to state regulation under the Health and Safety Code as may apply to caregiving facilities, rather than this being a land use issue.

The other issue that may bear on the matter is who, under the agreement between the city and the county under LGC section 242.001, has authority to regulate in the ETJ (whether it's the city or the county).

[This message was edited by Scott Brumley on 10-05-07 at .]

None, Etta, but if I did, I would send it on to Scott since he has helped me many times in the past! And I am not suggeting he is ham-handed with a guitar! I was only responding to his post on another thread.

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(Don't you think "Listeria Lawyer" is wonderfully alliterative?)

[This message was edited by Etta Warman on 10-05-07 at .]

Assuming that as a rural developer, he will operate a septic system and water well, I seem to recall that there are some state regulations or guidelines that dictate the size of a septic system based on the anticipated number of occupants. Will your elder care slumlord be able to construct an adequate septic system for the number of occupants he anticipates within the boundaries of a 5 acre tract? Can he fit such a system within his tract while maintaining a proper setback from the water well? If he intends to collect waste from all of his duplexes into one septic system, he may exceed what can be permitted for residential use. If he intends to plumb each duplex individually, he may not have room.

Thanks, John. That's an excellent point, and I've sent it on to the commissioner for that precinct. I guess that if we want to oppose this, we can get the state regulators onto it.