BEE CAVE, Texas — In an updated lawsuit, the city of Bee Cave accused the developers of a planned industrial complex of staging a cover-up and moving forward with construction without city approval.
The group of real estate developers are constructing a complex of industrial warehouses called West Austin Business Park next to the Sweetwater community on State Highway 71 and Serene Hills Drive.
In addition to the city’s updated lawsuit and claims against the developers, homebuilder Eppright Homes has joined as a plaintiff in an effort to halt the construction.
The city’s updated petition says developers moved forward with construction without first submitting their plans for the city’s review and approval, as required. Eppright Homes’ lawsuit claims developers “staged a cover-up” by sending renderings to nearby residents misrepresenting the size and design of the project.
The lawsuit claims developers deliberately kept the city in the dark for over a year by not disclosing an accurate description of the project and by failing to obtain formal city approval.
“Instead, developers provided incomplete information to the city in a belated and informal manner to create a false sense of good intentions,” the city said in a statement on Tuesday.
The 269,959 square feet of warehouse space and more than 80 docks for 18-wheeler trucks would be surrounded by residential neighborhoods. The city has been fighting the project, which it believes will significantly increase traffic from 18-wheelers on residential streets.
The land is not in the city limits. In a memo in August, the city explained, "The city and landowner signed a development agreement that brought the land into the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction and provided some level of regulatory control. The agreement included a requirement that this land be used for commercial and office purposes. The land was sold to a new owner in November 2023."
Real estate agents are already seeing an impact.
"I've already seen lots of buyers pull contracts just because they're not comfortable seeing this go up and purchasing a property where this is in their backyard," Lakeway resident and Realtor Amy Seely told KVUE in August.
City officials hope to force developers to stop all construction on the complex and demolish what has already been built.