Hardin County: Judge rescinds April 9 public notice on order adopting Residential Building Code Standards applicable to unincorporated area

Three days after posting a public notice for the Hardin County Commissioners Court to consider adoption of an order adopting Residential Building Code Standards applicable to unincorporated area of the county, County Judge Wayne McDaniel rescinded the public notice on April 4 via an email.
McDaniel sent out the public notice on April 1.
He said the draft order that was to be considered by commissioners court on April 9 will not be on the agenda. 
"I am considering including a discussion only item on the agenda concerning this but there will be no action taken on it now or in the future without notice to the public and public hearings," McDaniel wrote in an email. "After further research on this matter, I do not believe this would accomplish what I had hoped, which is to prevent people from living in substandard homes, specifically 'homes' constructed of wooden pallets, tarps, tree limbs, duct tape, etc. Adoption of this order would have helped the situation, but I now realize after additional research and legal advice that this will completely prevent this from occurring and is not the right action to take to solve this issue."
According to a fact sheet place of the order placed on social media by McDaniel, there are several substandard dwellings already built, in progress and proposed throughout unincorporated parts of the county, mostly in western part, that are drawing complaints to the county by neighbors. 
"This is how things began in Liberty County whereby many people have moved into Liberty County that are not in our country legally," stated McDaniel, referring to the Colony Ridge development in unincorporated Liberty County. "We are attempting to satisfy those complaints and prevent everyone in Hardin County from having to deal with the deplorable conditions that some Liberty County residents are suffering from, including terrible living conditions and high crime."
Colony Ridge, which began in 2011, has been accused of using predatory lending practices to entice Hispanic immigrants to buy land in their developments by the Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stating "bait-and-switch sales and predatory financing."
March 14, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Colony Ridge and its owner, John Harris, for "have built a sprawling community northeast of Houston on a foundation of false, misleading, and deceptive sales, marketing, and lending practices."
According to McDaniel, the proposed order would not cost the builder more in permit fees to the county but they will have to avoid cutting corners which will equate to additional building costs because they would have to hire an inspector to inspect the foundation ($175), dry in ($175) and a final inspection ($375).
The inspection costs are an approximate average and came from the Golden Triangle Inspectors Association, noted McDaniel.