Lakeway City Council allows earlier start time for golf course noise

The Lakeway City Council on Monday passed an amendment to the noise ordinance granting golf courses the ability to operate domestic power tools at 6:30 a.m. daily from May 1 through Sept 30. The council will review the amendment in October.

“I believe that this was a well-crafted compromise, and I see this first period of going from May to the end of September as almost being a pilot program," said Mayor Tom Kilgore. "Can we put this change in place, can the golf course change its practices, are they indeed a good neighbor? To that end, I think it is an interesting opportunity.”

The city drew up the amendment at the request of the Hills Country Club, who argued that earlier maintenance and earlier tee times would mean increased revenue to the city, and help to protect maintenance workers, and golfers, against the summer heat.

The city received 22 public comments on the amendment, with 20 in favor of the early start time, and two opposed to it.

Some Lakeway residents with homes on the golf course oppose the amendment due to the early disruptions. Resident Tyler Helwig gathered 32 signatures from neighbors with homes bordering the golf course who oppose the amendment.

“Everyone loves the golf course (but) we’re talking about health (and) sleeping, versus recreation,” Helwig said. “If we're going to start talking about numbers and stats from people who actually live on the golf course, it’s overwhelmingly against this measure.”

Other residents disagreed, saying that families who buy a home on a golf course must accept the noise.

In other action at Monday’s meeting, the council passed an amendment to the planned unit development for Cascade Homes and approved a preliminary plan for the housing development.

Cascade Homes, a housing development at 2811 RM 620 and set to build on one of the last undeveloped strips of land in Lakeway, received their PUD in September of last year.

The PUD amendment includes a larger number of smaller homes within the development, additional commercial space and city-width streets as opposed to private roads. The preliminary plan includes two access points to the development: one on the north, by the commercial lot, and one on the south side, through the parking lot for the Grove.

The plan also includes three detention ponds for water quality, fed by an underground storm sewer system. Detention ponds are large, excavated areas that temporarily store stormwater runoff to prevent flooding and erosion. Some residents with homes near the upcoming development, worry that the detention ponds will run off into their property, or that stagnant water could attract mosquitos.

The developer said the ponds should be mostly dry, except after rain, and City Manager Joseph Molis said the detention ponds are designed to release slowly, to mimic the natural environment, so flooding onto other properties should not be an issue.

“They have every right to discharge, so long as they discharge to the current, natural state of this existing property,” Molis said.

The council also engaged in preliminary talks for the 2025 budget, focusing discussion on the replacement of fleet vehicles, like police cars, some of which are 20 years old. The new vehicles are estimated at a $228,000 expenditure for the city, who could potentially receive $132,000 back from selling vehicles.

The no-new-revenue tax rate for 2025, because of the parks bond, is estimated at $15.39 per $100 home valuation, according to Molis. The budget, including all of the city’s wants and needs, is estimated at $1.6 million, which is over 2024’s operating expenses. Molis said city staff are working to trim the budget.

"That's the starting point, where we start picking and choosing," Molis said. "We will hopefully be able to work together to bring that down. ... We just wanted to show you what the 'big monster' looks like, that we have to start trimming down."