Block House Municipal Utility District is the grassroots government responsible for all of Block House Creek. A Municipal Utility District is a political subdivision of the State of Texas. It owns, operates and maintains the parks and pools in the district. Among other services, it provides community-wide garbage and recycling collection and enforces restrictive covenants -- legally enforceable promises that a property owner made when purchasing real estate.

Its legal authority to enforce covenants comes from the need to preserve property values in the district.

The Owners Association in Block House Creek was created as developer Milburn (later DR Horton) began bulding homes in large sections of the district. The association collects a monthly assessment from residents in sections it covers. It enforces restrictive covenants in those sections. Milburn established the covenants in the sections it developed. Please note that the Block House MUD's rules for restrictive covenants are different than those of the Owner's Association.

Older, pre-Milburn areas are also covered by restrictive covenants, but because they were developed at different times, by different developers, their covenants can vary considerably.

One common frustration is that the covenants can change from street to street. Residents justifiably find it hard to understand why a violation on one block is not a violation on another. There has been some discussion of trying to amalgamate the covenants so they are consistent district-wide. Unfortunately, when covenants are established, developers commonly make it difficult to amend covenants.

That's as it should be; when you invest in a home, you want to be able to rely on the consistency of the covenants' protection. The result in Block House Creek, though, is that it would be almost impossible to amend so many sets of covenants at once and very costly to try.

Block House MUD is in Cedar ParkÕs extraterritorial jurisdiction or "ETJ." The ETJ is an area beyond the city limits in which the city can exercise some development control, on the theory that one day, the city will annex the area.

The City of Cedar Park has not indicated any desire to annex the MUD. Under a state law passed in 1999, the City must give three years advance notice of its intent to annex a property. And when it does provide that notice, it must also negotiate with the MUD board to assure that, when annexation does occur, services continue at their present levels.

There are some compelling reasons the City probably won't want to annex Block House MUD any time soon. The City would be required to assume the districtÕs debt, and it would be costly for the City to provide the higher level of services that Block House residents enjoy with an efficient grassroots government.

Some area MUDs, upon annexation, have negotiated "strategic partnership agreements" which allow the MUD, with voter approval, to convert to an in-city limited district that can continue to provide the parks and recreation services and restrictive covenant enforcement that the MUD residents came to expect.

Please refer to Recycling Guidelines provided by Texas Disposal Systems. Contact customer care and dispatch at 512-421-1340 or MuniReps@texasdisposal.com.