Burleson Approves $3.32 Million Fort Worth Wastewater Capacity Buy

Burleson City Council on Nov. 9 approved Amendment 2 to its wholesale wastewater contract with Fort Worth and a $3,320,645.57 payment for 10 million gallons a day of added capacity on the line the packet names Village Creek Main 257, Part 2B, according to the official Nov. 9 regular-meeting agenda and the official agenda packet. The city's published meeting transcript records a motion to approve the resolution, a second, and the announcement, "Passes unanimously." Adopted written minutes were not opened for this report. The posted agenda set the meeting for 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 141 W. Renfro. The official City Hall facilities page lists that address as 141 W. Renfro St., Burleson, TX 76028-4261. The transcript says the mayor called the meeting to order at 5:33 p.m.

The official staff report in the packet says Fort Worth has provided Burleson wholesale wastewater service since 1972 and treats all of the city's wastewater. The current agreement, the report says, runs from May 8, 2017, through Sept. 30, 2037. On Oct. 16, 2016, the report says, the council approved an earlier amendment covering Burleson's required capacity and cost share in the Village Creek Parallel Relief Sewer Line built by Fort Worth.

The same report says Burleson first bought 8.7 million gallons a day of capacity in the 1970s and bought more in 2017. It lists today's available capacity as 25 million gallons a day in Village Creek Parallel Relief line Part 2B, between the Burleson and Crowley meter stations, and 35 million gallons a day in Parts 1 and 2A, from the Crowley meter station to Fort Worth's treatment plant. The city's wastewater master plan, the report says, puts peak flow at full build-out at 41.33 million gallons a day, counting expected development along Interstate 35, including PF Farms, Chisholm Summit, Hyder Ranch, Bear Ridge, and The Lakes, plus service under current development agreements in the extraterritorial jurisdiction.

If Burleson wanted more capacity in Part 2B, the staff report says, the city would otherwise bear every cost of building a new parallel line between the Burleson and Crowley meter stations. Fort Worth, the report says, instead agreed to sell 10 million gallons a day it already holds in that line, which would raise Burleson's Part 2B capacity from 25 million gallons a day to 35 million gallons a day and avoid building that parallel segment. Burleson owes Fort Worth the capacity's original invoice amount, $2,898,228.50, plus four years of interest at 3.46 percent on bonds Fort Worth issued in 2017, for a combined $3,320,645.57 after that interest, the report says. The official packet lists the proposed expenditure in the water and sewer bond fund. The amendment also revises the service-area map so Burleson may extend sanitary sewer service beyond city limits, but only where development agreements already exist.

Staff recommended approval. The same report cautions that the master plan figure still exceeds 35 million gallons a day, that other improvements will be needed to move the expected flows, and that the city is still studying options that include buying more capacity from Fort Worth, working with Johnson County Special Utility District, or making improvements in Burleson's own system. Staff said it expects to start updating the master plan in early 2027. Approving this purchase adds capacity in one existing line. It is not a new treatment plant, and it does not, by itself, satisfy the full build-out volume in the current master plan.

The same night, the council took up, on final reading, an ordinance amending Chapter 14 short-term rental rules and a companion ordinance amending the city's hotel occupancy tax chapter. The official agenda says the rental amendments require that the hotel occupancy tax ordinance be satisfied before a short-term rental permit is issued or renewed, allow the city to refuse or take back a permit if the operator does not follow that tax ordinance, and require short-term rentals to collect and send in the tax. The tax ordinance, the agenda says, adds remittance language, lets the city manager request more documentation, adds remedies including interest and penalties for late payments, makes a violation a misdemeanor, and addresses collection when a hotel is sold. The packet ordinances state that those changes take effect Jan. 1, 2027, after passage and publication. The items were pulled from the consent agenda for separate discussion. The official transcript records a motion to approve both, a second, and the announcement, "Passes unanimous."

On first reading, the transcript also records unanimous approval of an ordinance adding a citywide ban on parking in a marked fire lane, an item the agenda listed with a report on parking at Chisenhall Fields. A first reading is not the final adoption of that ordinance. The rest of the consent agenda — 5.A to 5.H, and 5.K to 5.V — with attorney-approval conditions noted on a wholesale-water contract item, is recorded in the transcript as passing unanimously.

Related reading: Beeville Renews Drought Emergency, Approves $84,169 in Water Work.