Desperately needed and already delayed, a proposed elevated water tank for the Stone Oak area has hit yet another snag.  Owners of the property slated for the water tower, located between Hardy Oak Boulevard and Blanco Road, are refusing to sell and the subsequent and lengthy legal battle to obtain the land by eminent domain may force BexarMet to look at other options.
 
On June 30, BexarMet’s Board of Directors met in executive session to discuss whether to proceed with acquiring the land through condemnation.  However, no action was made and it is not yet known whether this will be added to a future agenda.  Executive sessions are closed to the public.
 
While not able to speak of anything discussed at the June 30 meeting, Board Member Lesley Wenger confirmed the property slated for the water tower is located beyond where Hardy Oak dead-ends northwest of Wilderness Oak.  Although she was unsure of the exact acreage, Wenger says the land is a fairly large, old ranch currently owned by two sisters.
 
“They’re not interested in selling,” she says.
 
If BexarMet obtained the land through condemnation, or the act of taking private property for public use, the water district would pay market value.  However, Wenger -- the board member representing District 6, which includes the Stone Oak area -- says this route could delay the water tower even more. 
 
“These things don’t proceed very quickly,” she says of condemnation procedures, later adding, “I’m tired of waiting for this.  People need to have that tower.”
 
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which is requiring the additional tank to support the Hill Country water system, is becoming impatient as well, according to Wenger.  Needed since 2001, the elevated water tower was originally slated for land within the Estates at Champions Run off of Canyon Golf Road, but residents raised concerns over the aesthetics of the structure and its potential effect on property values.  A less visible ground storage tank was then designed, but that plan was scratched as well.  Although BexarMet representatives have said the ground tank proved to be too expensive, Wenger says TCEQ regulations require areas surrounded by 2,500 or more homes have an elevated water tower. 
 
“TCEQ came back and said, ‘You can go ahead with the ground tank, but where are you going to put the elevated one?’” says Wenger, noting, “Once the decision was made for the ground storage tank, we should have proceeded with that.”
 
BexarMet was originally eyeing three different parcels off of Hardy Oak for the future water tower.  It is not known whether all those sites are owned by the same people.