Not In My Back Yard!!!!

Lockhart is a city on the cusp of explosive growth. You would not believe how long that statement has been uttered here. And if you believe it you obviously do not understand the community and it's mindset.

A little history is in order here to illustrate. Shortly after arriving here in 1979 Lockheed decided to locate a new manufacturing operation on U.S. 183 just south of Austin. I was involve in economic development in Lockhart as a member of the Lockhart Industrial Foundation so the optimism was palpable. The talk was that supporting businesses would sprout up and people would move to Lockhart as a closer alternative to work than Round Rock, which was just starting to take off. Lockheed came and went and the explosive growth never materialized. The next big event was the relocation of the Austin airport to Bergstrom AFB. Same story, different verse. The difference is that the airport is not going away but the economic impact to Caldwell County has been minimal. The latest is the events predicting "explosive growth" is the construction of the 130 Toll Road, the final leg completed less than a year ago. Again the optimism is high and everyone is on the edge of their seats waiting for it to happen.

And that is the problem. It seems that the community expects this explosive growth while they sit on their asses and do nothing. Or worse, they sit back and complain and block opportunities because "it's not the right kind of growth" or "we don't want Lockhart to be identified by this". I have come to believe that the community only wants growth where THEY want it, on their terms, or GO AWAY! The City Council regularly thwarts businesses through a convoluted zoning plan to try to force them into an industrial park, owned by the city. Locally it is known as "the place where businesses go to die". But it is not just the City Council's doing. Apparently the neighbors have veto power over a zoning change regardless of their rationale. The Council jumps through their butts to please the neighbors without consideration of what is best for the community as a whole. Pandering is a way of life in small town Texas and I am sick of it!

The latest example of the NIMBY attitude is the proposed location of a landfill/recycling plant about 5 miles north of Lockhart. In this case Lockhart has little to say in the matter as it will be outside the ETJ of the city and the county has very little legal authority to control it. As you might imagine the people living in the vicinity of the proposed site are not pleased. Their only option is to convince the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the regulatory body that permits landfills, that the environmental impact would be so onerous that the permit should be denied. Those are the parameters on which permitting should be based. Not the potential economic impact, positive or negative, from the location of the business there. Not on whether the neighbors do not want to live near a landfill.  The problem they opponents are facing is that the science is not on their side and the TCEQ is not made up of small town elected officials that can be browbeat into giving the neighbors what they want. TCEQ is all about environmental protection and, as long as the business meets the standards set by the regulations, they should be allowed to operate. So the fight is on! The company wanting to build the facility, having built hundreds of them around the country, have started their PR campaign to sell the project. And their are offering financial enticements that would be substantial and benefit the community for years to come. The opposition has formed and is mounting a negative PR campaign of their own. The opposition is woefully out funded in this battle and will most likely lose this fight. The permitting process with take several years so it's not going to happen soon.

When a business decides to locate somewhere there are several factors that are considered. The suitability of the location, costs to get operational, and availability of a stable workforce. Generally they have a number of options that they choose from. If one community is receptive to business development they are going to be given more favorable consideration than another community that obstructs and rejects as a general course of business. Reputations are hard to overcome and can sometimes be based on perceptions rather than fact. Such is life. The obstructionist label is on Lockhart and is responsible for the economic growth train passing us by. It is going to take time and effort to overcome that image.

What does the future hold for Lockhart? If we check back in 20 years will it still be "on the cusp of explosive growth"? Will the neighbors defeat the landfill and keep the Lytton Springs area safe to exist in its unregulated squalor? Will the toll road be our economic salvation? One thing is certain. If the "leaders of the community" continue as they are nothing will happen.