by JEN BIUNDO

Justices with the Texas Supreme Court on Friday shot down a case filed by opponents of Buda’s U.S. Foodservice Development, potentially giving the company a green light to move forward with construction of a food distribution facility just east of IH-35.

“I think this is the last hurdle,” said Buda Economic Development Director Warren Ketteman. “It looks like U.S. Foodservice can build that new state-of-the-art $51 million facility in Buda, Texas. It’s good news all the way around.”

Members of the group BudaFirst sued the city of Buda last year, arguing that councilmembers violated the citizens’ rights when they refused to honor a petition calling for a referendum election regarding a land use change for the controversial U.S. Foodservice facility in the Sunfield development east of Buda.

A referendum election lets citizens vote to support or overturn a city council action.

Though the site is located just east of the city limits in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) and Buda has no zoning authority over the land, a development agreement gives the city some clout in land use planning. The site had originally been slated for office use, but the development agreement amendment opened up about 90 acres for light industrial use, drawing outcry from a group of citizens who said that the development would generate heavy truck traffic and mar the gateway to Buda.

Meanwhile, other residents supported the development, citing the well-paying jobs it would bring to the area.

The city said the contractual land use change was an “executive act” not subject to a referendum election, in which citizens can vote to overturn council decisions.

After lower courts threw out the suit, petitioners and BudaFirst members Jim Hollis and Christopher Juusola appealed to the Supreme Court in mid-March. Less than three months later, justices have now denied the suit without hearing the case. On Friday the court also denied a motion to stay, which would have halted development on the property.

Attorneys for Hollis and Juusola did not return multiple calls for comments.

According to recent campaign finance reports, BudaFirst is funded almost exclusively by the heirs of Herman Heep, a millionaire rancher who amassed thousands of acres of land at the Hays-Travis County border during the early part of the last century. His granddaughters – Betsy Urban, Hatsy Heep and Kathleen Adkins – inherited large swaths of his land and have said that the light industrial plant could hurt their chances of putting upscale developments on their own property.

While BudaFirst has exhausted its appeals avenue – state cases cannot be appealed to federal courts – it’s unclear if an additional suit might be filed to slow the development.

U.S. Foodservice has not yet closed on the property, which is currently owned by the developers of the Sunfield Municipal Utility District, said company spokesperson Howard Falkenberg, but work is moving forward.

“We’re going to proceed to meet all permitting and development agreements and that should lead to construction of the first phase of the facility,” Falkenberg said.