BEE CAVE, Texas — In a unanimous vote during a Monday night meeting, Lakeway City Council instructed the city attorney to join in litigation with Bee Cave over a large warehouse space called West Austin Business Park.
More than 30 residents spoke out in support of the city taking action.
According to Bee Cave, developer Velocis is planning to construct an industrial park with three buildings, 269,959 square feet of warehouse space and more than 80 docks for 18-wheeler trucks.
The West Austin Business Park is going up in the Bee Cave ETJ off State Highway 71 and Serene Hills Drive.
Last week, Bee Cave filed an injunction attempting to halt the development. In a memo, the city said current city leaders were not notified of the industrial nature of this facility and believe it's inappropriate for the location.
The land is not in the city limits. The memo 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 memo went on to read, "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."
It sits next to the Madrone Canyon neighborhood, surrounded by the Sweetwater neighborhood and right across from Lakeway's Serene Hills neighborhood.
Lakeway residents said construction popped up about a week ago.
"It's all so new," Lakeway resident Stephen Legasse said. "It just, the walls just went up and everybody's [like], 'What's, what's going on there?'"
During a city council special session on Monday in Bee Cave about the new distribution facility, the council noted it was also surprised by the construction.
"We were all as shocked as everyone here when we saw those walls go up," one Bee Cave council member said.
The city of Bee Cave believes the noise, traffic and pollution are not compatible with the Sweetwater neighborhood. The city believes this violates several regulations and the agreement.
Neighbors expressed the same concerns.
"It's been really worrisome because of its location," Lakeway resident Kelly Tejada said. "There's no freeway access, and we already have a huge amount of commercial truck traffic cutting through Serene Hills and Flint Rock Road to get to from 71 to 620."
Safety is also a concern.
"There are residential communities with lots of little kids and families and dogs and people riding bikes," Tejada said.
"I just witnessed a fatality right next to my house on Flint Rock Road involving a dump truck," Lagasse said.
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 said.
A city of Bee Cave spokesperson said there is no timeline on when the injunction will be approved.