Bastrop, Tx–With the Wilderness Ridge Fire fully contained Monday, Bastrop County commissioners agreed to waive a series of ordinary development fees for home and business owners who undertake to rebuild on properties ravaged by the 1,500-acre wildfire which broke out about noon Feb. 28.
Roughly two dozen homes and perhaps half as many businesses were destroyed over the next two days, plus an uncounted number of vehicles, outbuildings and other personal property.
For qualified owners in the affected areas along Cottletown Road between Park Road IC and the Colorado River who were affected by the wildfire, development fees will be waived for at least the next year, commissioners decided. The fees include those associated with site development, onsite wastewater disposal systems, driveway/culvert installations and disposal of debris at the county’s solid waste transfer station, said Julie Sommerfeld, the county’s developmental services manager.
For details, visit the development services office at 806 Water St. in Bastrop or call 581-7176.
Sommerfeld estimated the forgiven fees will likely range from about $10,000 to as much as $30,000 if all the damaged properties are redeveloped over the coming year.
Mike Fisher, the county’s emergency management coordinator, said other state and federal aid is being sought to offset fire losses which will amount to millions of dollars. Fisher also noted that more than 400 threatened homes, six business structures and as many as 44 recreational vehicles were saved by the combined efforts of hundreds of local and state firefighters, plus personnel and equipment from state agencies and other units from as far away as North Carolina and Michigan.
The Wilderness Ridge blaze was Bastrop County’s worst since May 1984, when some 900 acres of the Lost Pines area was burned along with six residences, according to Fisher.