Golf cart ordinance

Warned the golf cart ordinance is a "Pandora's box" on permits and enforcement, criticized the 10-year trash contract with 5% annual increases, suggested senior water-rate breaks, and reported gunfire on Osage Road.

Strongly opposed: carts top out at 12-25 mph while the ordinance allows 35-mph roads, so traffic will back up; she wanted a public survey or vote first.

Opposed golf carts, gators, or similar vehicles on city streets, noting the city has no farms or golf courses, and asked the council to listen to citizens before voting.

Opposed: cited eight new teen drivers on his ten-house block, no sidewalks, heavy pedestrian and e-bike traffic, understaffed police, and new signage and enforcement costs.

Said Schoenthal Road traffic actually runs 40-45 mph; a 40-mph truck hitting a 20-mph cart means a fatality a police officer must deliver. Also praised Davenport High School's success.

Said Texas already ranks among the highest for OHV deaths — it's a matter of when, not if — and warned council members can be voted out or recalled.

Told the council a Garden Ridge police officer can legally handle code complaints without TDLR registration — a no-cost fix — and closed by calling golf carts a bad idea.

Honored late Citizens on Patrol stalwart Huey McDonald, then opposed the ordinance, saying Forest Waters would become a cart corridor and that "if a car hits a cart, the car is going to win every time."

Argued the ordinance is internally inconsistent and conflicts with the Texas Transportation Code's definition of off-highway vehicles, and that a small subgroup's interests outweigh the city's.

Recited detailed injury statistics — 15,000 ER visits, ~600 deaths annually, 31% of victims under 16 — and implored the council not to pass the ordinance.

The main supporter: lives in a gated area where carts work but can't reach her ailing mother across the gate; said carts build community and slow traffic is not a bad thing.

An insurance veteran called the ordinance as written "bad" and "inadequate" from 20+ compliance angles, urged fixing it properly rather than a for/against split, and offered to work with the city manager.

Spoke against the golf cart ordinance during the first comment period (per the minutes).

Raised governance concerns: the police chief drafted the ordinance, which he called an improper blurring of enforcement and lawmaking, and asked the council to table it and return it to the proper legislative process.

Said her Forest Waters neighborhood is affected most, asked for better advance notice of public forums, and criticized passing an ordinance with changes made mid-meeting.

Said she never heard of a risk-benefit analysis and slammed rewriting the ordinance mid-meeting: "20 years in commercial real estate law, I would never put a contract in front of anybody... still rewriting it before everybody had seen it."

Reiterated the ordinance has "so many holes" and offered his notes; asked about AT&T fiber arrival within 12 months and requested HOA outreach on the new roof-permit requirements.