Cibolo council directs staff to develop plan after Saddle Creek Ranch residents raise floodplain and access concerns

Cibolo City Council directed staff on Oct. 13 to prepare a plan for cataloging and addressing drainage and detention‑pond maintenance in neighborhoods where homeowners’ associations (HOAs) manage large open‑space drainage areas.

The vote followed more than two hours of discussion and public comment focused on Saddle Creek Ranch, a Cibolo subdivision whose HOA members told the council they inherited roughly 20-plus acres of floodplain and detention areas they cannot afford to maintain. Staff said the city currently maintains about 450 acres of city drainage channels and that roughly 375 additional acres are HOA‑maintained; staff estimated a fully loaded day of drainage work at about $3,633 and a one‑time remediation job at Saddle Creek would cost about $18,163.

The request grew out of citizen concerns that new phases of development and blocked or single egress points raise public‑safety and emergency‑access questions and that HOA‑owned floodplain parcels are increasingly silted and overgrown. Charity Rodriguez, the Saddle Creek Ranch HOA president, told the council: “We already have the approval for the next development, and there's 92 homes in just that area, not including the other 2 that we already have. … The traffic…