Scurry County commissioners want to ease deed restrictions at the Maverick West subdivision in order to sell the remaining 59 lots.
During Tuesday’s commissioners’ court meeting, County Judge Dan Hicks reviewed some of the restrictions that may be modified to help market the lots. Hicks and County Attorney Mike Hartman will come up with amended deed restrictions that will be presented to the court for approval at a future meeting.
But it does not end there. Hicks and Hartman both said that each property owner, including the developers who have not built on their lots, must approve the amended restrictions in order for them to take effect.
“We need to come up with restrictions that benefit everyone,” Pct. 3 Commissioner Shawn McCowen said. “If you have one person disagree, it squashes the whole deal. We need to do our best to sell them.”
Hicks said he learned deed restrictions need updating after talking to local Realtors, developers, potential buyers and at least one person who owns property in the subdivision.
He said those talks led to at least three restrictions that needed to be amended, two of which are currently being violated.
The first is the setback limit for a home on a lot. City codes state a setback must be eight feet from the side property line and the Maverick West restriction is five feet. A setback is the distance between two homes in a subdivision, Hicks said.
“I would like to get this in line with the city ordinance,” Hicks said. “If someone wanted to build a home out there with the current restrictions, the city would tell them no.”
When asked by Bonnie Nussey who enforces the restrictions in the subdivision, Hartman said it is typically a homeowners association. However, Maverick West does not have an association and Hartman said an individual property owner could enforce the restrictions by taking a person to court.
The City of Snyder does not enforce deed restrictions between developers and property owners, City Zoning Administrator Vick Chambers said, but officials will advise prospective builders of any existing deed restrictions. However, the city does approve blueprints prior to issuing permits.
The second issue Hicks said has come up is the design of outbuildings on a person’s property. The current restrictions state that the outbuilding must be completed in the same color scheme and feature the same brick design as the home. Hicks said some of the outbuildings in the subdivision do not meet that criteria and should be changed.
The final concern is that some people have requested to buy two lots to build one home, which cannot be done with the current restrictions. Hicks recommended that the exterior lots of the subdivision be combined to sell as a single lot. There are currently 34 exterior lots and 10 have been sold, but no construction has begun.
Hicks said selling two lots to build a single home in the interior areas would disrupt the flow of what has been built.
Commissioners did not discuss changing the minimum square footage limit of 1,400-square feet for a home in the subdivision. There is no maximum square footage in the current deed restrictions.
“We need to agree on the specifics before we send it to the property owners,” Pct. 1 Commissioner Terry Williams said.
Hartman said getting the consent of the property owners may be the biggest issue.
“You will need to be specific in what the amendments are going to be,” he said.
Local Realtor Melissa Petty said several developers have asked to buy two lots for a single home. She said doing that on the exterior lots could help sell the lots.
“We have some people waiting to build on bigger lots,” she said, adding that the Talbott Trace development did not begin selling until Realtors were able to combine lots.
Doubling of lots at Talbott Trace was permitted since at least March 2014, and the final two lots sold earlier this year.
The county began the development of Maverick West in 2012 and during a March 6, 2013 auction, 22 of the 91 lots sold.
Hicks said five lots were eliminated from early plats due to the Atmos gas line.
Today, 10 homes have been built in the subdivision and only one lot has been sold by the county since the beginning of 2017.
County officials maintain that homes in the subdivision can be built in the $150,000 to $200,000 price range.
Development Corporation of Snyder Executive Director Brooke Proctor has discussed the need for “workforce housing” several times during her board’s monthly meetings. Proctor said the only way to get people to move to Snyder is with affordable housing, but she only knew of one development in the planning stages.
Proctor said developer Bill Smyrl has been applying to receive federal tax credits to build affordable housing in Snyder for the past eight years.
“We are in need of the affordable housing where a teacher or police officer can live,” Proctor said of Snyder’s pressing needs to help draw businesses and industries to the area.