Part 1 Special Series Losing Ground - Law lets developers ignore growth controls An obscure Texas law written for developers has cost San Antonio millions of dollars, stripped parts of the scenic Hill Country of trees and blocked attempts to protect the region's water supply. The "vested rights" law stops cities from imposing new restrictions on a real estate project once a developer files virtually any kind of plan for it. From that point on, the project is "vested" and frozen in a time warp of more lenient city codes. See photos of clear cutting ... See 2nd article: Losing Ground: How we did this report The Texas grandfathering law has played a pivotal yet often hidden role in shaping San Antonio's growth. To determine the law's impact, the San Antonio Express-News pored over files for each vested project, conducted scores of interviews and analyzed several government databases.
Law lets developers ignore growth controls 10/16/2005 John Tedesco Express-News Staff Writer
An obscure Texas law written for developers has cost San Antonio millions of dollars, stripped parts of the scenic Hill Country of trees and blocked attempts to protect the region's water supply. The "vested rights" law stops cities from imposing new restrictions on a real estate project once a developer files virtually any kind of plan for it. From that point on, the project is "vested" and frozen in a time warp of more lenient city codes. The industry portrays the statute as protection for the little guy from overbearing government. It's a message that resonates in Texas, where property rights are held sacred. In reality, the law almost always is used by large development companies, which have invoked it hundreds of times to trump efforts by citizens to tame explosive growth, a yearlong investigation by the San Antonio Express-News has found. Thanks to the law, developers bulldozed wide swaths of the Hill Country, wiping out hundreds of acres of trees that residents fought hard to protect through two tree-preservation ordinances. See Express-News for full story
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/environment/stories/MYSA101605.1A.vested.main.3d67547.html
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More headlines: Building lots of differences Losing Ground: How we did this report Law lets developers ignore growth controls Government Canyon ripe for exploring
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