Bastrop, Tx–The city manager is challenging charges that the council has been “non-responsive and/or obstructive” to proposals for a private general aviation airport on a 1,500-acre tract west of Bastrop.
The project has drawn sharp opposition from county residents in the area, but the city is involved because the tract is part of Bastrop’s extra-territorial jurisdiction, an area where it exercises some development controls.
In a letter dated Feb. 1, City Manager Mike Talbot invited Austin developer James Carpenter and his group to suggest dates for a public workshop with the city council as a step toward “meaningful” talks on issues related to the $150 million project which Carpenter has claimed will create thousands of jobs in the next 10 years.
Talbot also charged that the city has heard nothing from the Carpenter group since a Nov. 9 meeting at which the council outlined its conditions for moving discussions forward.
“The council and I have been disturbed to have heard complaints voiced, over the past several weeks, in various forums (and directly by local citizens), to the effect that the City of Bastrop has been ‘non-responsive and/or obstructive’ to you and your team in your development of the project. In the city’s view, nothing could be further from the truth,” Talbot wrote to Carpenter.
Talbot’s letter was released Feb. 18 among materials distributed to the city council ahead of its scheduled Feb. 22 meeting, set for 6 p.m. at City Hall.
Tags: private airport
For relevant background to this article, see earlier posts on this site dated Nov. 10, 2010 and Dec. 16, 2010.–dmc