Bulverde Denial Stops McCarty Ranch Code Exceptions

The rejected 387-acre PDD would have fixed exceptions for grading, trees and water facilities before later engineering and plat reviews.

By Comal.News Government Desk · Source-linked local reporting

Published September 25, 2026 at 12:48 PM CDT2 min read

Verified from city packet and recording review

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Stylized cream-and-navy illustration of a closed red ranch gate, bulldozer, tree stump and water equipment on a rural property, with a large house and hills in the distance. — Illustration: A closed ranch gate blocks construction equipment near cleared land and a water facility.Original editorial illustration; not a photograph and does not depict the reported event or an exact property.Comal.News Visual Desk · Original illustration · Source ↗ · Comal.News original illustration ↗

Council denied the request to establish the McCarty Ranch planned development district at 31575 Highway 281 North.

Bulverde property owners and residents would have faced modified city rules for grading, tree removal and water facilities across the 387-acre site.

Council and staff discussed required master-development-plan studies and confirmed that relief granted through the PDD could not later be withdrawn during MDP review.

What the application would have changed

The application sought to replace city standards governing lot geometry, street alignment, steep-slope disturbance, cuts and fills, tree removal, mitigation and riparian-buffer encroachment across the proposed district.

The packet said the city code allowed disturbance of up to 15% within areas carrying slopes of 20% to 25%. The applicant requested a 25% limit inside defined grading areas, cuts as deep as 20 feet on six identified lots and fills as high as 15 feet on nine lots.

The proposal also would have exempted protected and specimen trees inside grading areas from mitigation while requiring cash mitigation for three majestic trees. Staff outlined requested deviations involving tree mitigation, utility service, lot geometry, street alignment, and disturbance limits on steep slopes.

Which reviews would have remained

Later reviews still would have tested the project’s engineering and compliance with the PDD. The packet called for full tree surveys during individual platting phases, and a municipal utility district would have required separate city action. Those checkpoints would not have reopened the exceptions written into the PDD.

Council examined phased tree surveys, cash mitigation, and whether the PDD would make proposed water facilities permitted uses instead of requiring later special-use permits.

The packet contemplated a buried storage facility, a booster pump station and a treatment facility serving the proposed single-family, multifamily and commercial areas. Their placement remained part of the conditions considered with the application.

The plan had narrowed before the vote

The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval 6-1 with seven conditions. They addressed trees inside the riparian buffer, limited encroachment to 10 lots with nonbuildable buffer areas, removed a proposed $200,000 tree-mitigation cap and restricted a water-treatment facility to multifamily or commercial zones.

Even after those revisions, the application retained the higher steep-slope disturbance allowance and exemptions for tree removal within defined grading areas. Bulverde’s full meeting recap places the denial alongside the council’s other Sept. 22 decisions.

What happens next

Bulverde’s development-applications page lists the tract under reference PDD 26-01, giving residents the current official filing to monitor for any later revision.

A new filing or council posting would show whether the applicants return and which grading, tree, riparian-buffer or water-facility provisions they seek next. Readers can inspect the city packet for the proposed standards and use the official recording to follow the council’s review and denial.

From the source record

City packetMcCarty Ranch PDD 26-01 Staff Report

The request covered single-family, multifamily and commercial uses on approximately 387 acres.

City of Bulverde ↗

Bulverde’s Sept. 22 packet details the proposed code modifications and later-stage reviews for McCarty Ranch.