Lakeview MUD No. 1 on TCEQ’s July 15 agenda, projects 7,500 residents to Sardis area
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will consider the Lakeview Municipal Utility District No. 1 of Ellis County during its July 15 meeting, with the matter appearing on track for approval.
The 513-acre project is located within the city of Waxahachie’s extraterritorial jurisdiction and situated about 800 feet east of Longbranch Road, 600 feet west of Farm-to-Market 664, and 3/4s of a mile north of Marshall Road. The petition to create the MUD has been opposed by two governmental entities, the city of Waxahachie and Ellis County, and also an affected landowners group, Texans for MUD Reform.
The petition has the support, however, of the State Office of Public Interest Counsel and the TCEQ’s executive director. The administrative law judge assigned by the State Office of Administrative Hearings has also recommended that the petition, which was received by the TCEQ in November 2024, be granted.
Since its filing, the matter has wound its way through various procedural processes, with a “hearing on the merits” conducted in late January 2026, according to a May 4 SOAH filing. Over that two-day hearing, the applicants introduced 32 exhibits and five witnesses’ testimony. The city and county introduced nine exhibits and two witnesses’ testimony. TMR introduced 16 exhibits and the testimony of three landowners. The executive director brought in eight exhibits along with testimony from its technical reviewer.
“The record closed on March 6, 2026, after the parties submitted their written closing arguments,” according to the SOAH filing.
The applicants originally sought to create three MUDs on about 707 acres. Those petitions were consolidated and then denied by the TCEQ in August 2023; however, “[s]ubsequently in a proceeding opposed by the City, County, and TMR, Applicants applied for and received a Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (TPDES) permit for a wastewater treatment plant that will serve the District,” according to the SOAH filing.
Information contained in the upcoming TCEQ agenda packet indicates the development, which will be known as Lakeview, will comprise 2,803 single-family connections that will include 1,341 detached single-family lots, 432 single-family townhomes, 972 multi-family units, and 58 connections for neighborhood commercial use. About 10% of the property is slated for open space and public right-of-way, with the wastewater treatment plant also sited within the development.
The applicants have projected an ad valorem tax rate of $1 per $100 of valuation for the district to cover debt service requirements and maintenance and operating expenses. Part of the district is within the Midlothian ISD, with the rest within Waxahachie ISD. The SOAH filing found that the district’s overlapping tax rates and proposed water and sewer rates “are reasonable.”
“When fully developed, the District will have an estimated 7,457 residents,” according to the SOAH filing, which notes that retail water service will be provided by Sardis-Lone Elm Water Supply Company, with whom the applicants had entered into a contract in March 2021. When built out, the development will require 2.422 million gallons of water a day, with testimony from the applicants’ side during the contested proceedings indicating Sardis has the capacity.
After the SOAH’s May 4 filing, both sides were allowed to file any exceptions, with that filing essentially reaffirmed by the SOAH in a June 11 letter.
For detailed information and filings, visit this TCEQ link.
Written by Jo Ann Livingston/In The Know Ellis.
