Brazos County commissioners approve trash storage ordinance, postpone half billion dollar building vote
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) — Brazos County Commissioners tabled decisions on the former Bryan ISD administration building and solidified a countywide landfill ordinance on Tuesday.
Commissioners discussed the future of Brazos County landfills and county offices. While the former Bryan ISD building’s construction decision was tabled for the following meeting, a landfill ordinance was approved to prevent trash from showing up in locals’ backyards.
The former Bryan ISD Administration building has been a topic in the commissioner’s discussions since the county bought the building in 2021. Since then, the court approved a feasibility study, began demolition, and considered multiple offices to take up the new space.
“[County offices] need to be able to be in close proximity to the courthouse and there’s really no other space that’s currently available, short of building that proposed building,” explained Brazos County Judge Duane Peters. “We do have that building there but we could have another use for it. So, part of it is certainly the [community] growth, and then there’s a lot of things that factored in on it. Growth is one of the bigger ones, though.”
In Tuesday’s meeting, the court voted on a reconstruction plan to use the building for multiple county offices. In the future, the building is expected to house multiple departments including adult probation, justice of the peace, central juries, and public defenders.
Commissioners Fred Brown and Bentley Nettles said they couldn’t approve the plan without being better informed on the project.
“We’re asked to vote on a $50 million project that we haven’t been brought up to speed on. I’m not saying that we don’t need the space but I’m saying that somebody needs to talk to us about it because that’s a big, big amount of money,” Commissioner Brown, Precinct 3, commented.
After deliberation, commissioners chose to table the decision for the following week’s meeting.
Judge Peters said he holds neither commissioner at fault and thinks the best court is an informed court.
“Since I’ve been on the court, and two of the other commissioners have been there through this whole process, they have a good feel of what we’re trying to get done and where we’re trying to move all the parts. You know, longer-term goals. Since [Brown and Nettles] are brand new and have been here since January, maybe they haven’t been involved in a lot of those conversations,” reasoned Judge Peters. “We’ll see if we can get them up to speed this week and see what happens next week.”
The court also approved an ordinance to dictate where future county landfills can be built after months of meetings. However, the commissioners said they’re mostly concerned with keeping the conversation focused on the community.
“That’s why it’s important. It actually keeps somebody from coming in and creating a landfill without some input from the county commissioners,” Judge Peters added. “We’re in a place now to where they would have to come to the court to ask for a variance or to actually buy that tract of land.”
The ordinance approved on Tuesday prevents future landfills from being established without local approval. Because the ordinance passed, private companies that want to buy land for a landfill will have to get commissioners to sign on first.
Within the ordinance, commissioners designated county-owned land in Millican as the only location where a landfill can be developed. They said this ordinance closes loopholes and does not mean the county has any plans or desire for a landfill.
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