Cibolo Realty's Blog

This just in from the Texas Alliance of Land Brokers:

NEW TAX FOR SPECIES IN SEVEN TEXAS COUNTIES
The City of San Antonio and Bexar County, the county in which San Antonio is located, are creating a multi-county-wide land-use habitat plan that will set the precedent for the rest of the state if implemented. The Southern Edwards Plateau Habitat Conservation Plan (SEP-HCP) establishes fees for landowners who possibly have habitat for endangered species.

According to a news release published by the Exotic Wildlife Association out of Ingram, Texas, this plan is nothing more than a zoning plan that the federal government wants local governments to implement for them. The regional land-use plan will encompass thousands of acres in Bexar, Medina, Bandera, Kerr, Kendall, Blanco, and Comal Counties.

A “stakeholder” group formed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Service, the City of San Antonio, and Bexar County are creating this multi-county plan. That means a group of unelected officials are creating a funding mechanism to charge homeowners and landowners fees to pay for their plan that is supposedly for the protection of two songbirds and numerous other listed endangered species like cave bugs.

This is the same plan that was attempted twice before that citizens and landowners fought and killed. The organizers are hoping people won’t recognize this for what it really is and not react. However, you have opportunity to do something by calling the county judges and county commissioners in the following counties:
Bexar County
Medina County
Bandera County
Kerr County
Kendall County
Blanco County
Comal County

Proponents of this plan claim there is a “crisis” that this plan will avert. They claim that nearly 3,200 acres of habitat are destroyed each year and that is why this plan must be created.

The SEP-HCP is a stealth way of gaining more federal control over private property by enlisting local help. This plan, if implemented, will create a large preserve funded by fees charged to landowners who want to utilize their private land. The City of San Antonio and Bexar County will be able to set a fee per acre and charge landowners to utilize their own land.

The fee is called mitigation and will come in many different forms. One is a “per-acre” fee paid by the landowner into an account that will be used to buy land for the preserve. Another is called a “set-aside” where landowners are required to set aside up to three acres for no use for every one that he wants to use. Another form of payment forces landowners to purchase other habitat to replace the habitat they destroy on their property if and when they want to build a home, put up a fence, dig a water tank, or any other normal “activity” on private property that will be defined by the City of San Antonio and Bexar County representatives.

Call and demand this be stopped today.


CONTACT the COUNTY OFFICIALS

Bexar County
Medina County
Bandera County
Kerr County
Kendall County
Blanco County
Comal County