KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — During the January 2, 2024, Kaufman County Commissioners Court meeting, the Commissioners discussed the final plat for Steele Subdivision along County Road 271, and a multiple-use agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) for the installation and operation of license plate reader (LPR) cameras.
KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — During the January 2, 2024, Kaufman County Commissioners Court meeting, the Commissioners discussed the final plat for Steele Subdivision along County Road 271, and a multiple-use agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) for the installation and operation of license plate reader (LPR) cameras.
The Steele Subdivision, located along County Raod 271 in Precinct 3, is 9 acres, and the land owner is splitting that into four separate lots. Shannon Roden with the county said the plans had been approved and submitted to the commissioners.
Regarding how this process works, Roden was asked by Commissioner Hunt to explain to the Court what goes into approving these plats and subdivisions in the rual areas of the county.
“The County has a one-acre of usable space ordinance because of on-site sewage systems,” said Roden. “If you are not putting an on-site sewage system in your backyard and monitoring it yourself, then that ordinance does not apply. That [ordinance] only applies if you are going to put a septic system in your backyard because utilities are not brought to that property. It’s rural.”
“Developers will go through TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) and create MUD Districts to provide some of the necessities…then our ordinance does not apply to that property,” said Roden. “We don’t have any legislation that says we can stop or deny them. Unfortunately, everything that is in our subdivision regulations is everything legislatively we can do.”
“Being in that unincorporated area, there is the right to use the land the way they want to. That’s the difference between living in a city where it’s ruled and an unincorporated area where it’s not.”
If a development request meets the statute of law, the Commissioners must approve it, or it’s approved under the rule of law.
Moving on to the multi-use agreement between the County and TXDOT, Sheriff Beavers says that the county’s legal department has approved the process to bring in LPR’s, and now it’s a matter of getting TXDOT to approve. The motion passed unanimously.
The cameras in reference are called FLOCK cameras, and many municipalities across the state have adopted the use to help identify stolen vehicles; in some communities, it’s led to an increase in stolen property recovered and more arrests.
Locally, the Precinct 2 Constable's Office utilizes such cameras in northwestern Kaufman County and cities such as Plano and Propser have also deployed the cameras. LPR and FLOCK camera usage was a topic of considerable discussion in Central Texas communities last year, and have also been a hot topic in Houston.
