What started as a side issue in last year’s Stratus Properties debate is now a bona fide ordinance regulating development near underground pipelines. The new rules gained City Council’s unanimous approval last week despite the specter of legal challenges from builders and the oil and gas industry. Indeed, the council seemed to thumb its nose at the lawsuit threats by placing the ordinance on a 10-day fast track for becoming law.
The idea of a local pipeline ordinance grew out of the controversial development deal with Stratus to build out the remainder of its Circle C Ranch property in Southwest Austin. A portion of that Stratus land sits atop the now-idle oil pipeline through which Longhorn Partners plans to move gasoline from the Gulf Coast to El Paso — a project that’s been vehemently opposed by Austinites and their elected officials.
The argument over pipeline safety did not stop the Stratus deal from moving forward, but it did push the notion of an ordinance front and center. Over the last six months, the city staff drafted an ordinance, floated the document, revised it, and then revised it again for final approval. Council Member Daryl Slusher, who last year sharply disagreed with environmentalist opponents of the Stratus deal, took the lead on shepherding the pipeline ordinance through the approval process.
The final obstacle to last week’s vote — the distance the ordinance would require between a pipeline and a “high-consequence” structure like a school or nursing home — was settled at 200 feet; such structures could be built within 200 and 500 feet of a pipeline subject to approval from the Fire Dept. Environmentalists and safety advocates lobbied for a stricter 500-foot absolute prohibition but expressed satisfaction with the final decision.
This article appears in April 18 • 2003.
