SOS Supporters Celebrate Ruling
Austin American-Statesman, May 9, 1998
May 1998
The Texas Supreme Court unanimously agrees that the SOS Ordinance is a "rational and legal way to control water quality." The ordinance is one of the strictest in the nation.
The SOS Ordinance limits development on land, requires that runoff after development does not increase existing pollution levels, and calls for buffers of undeveloped land near sensitive ecological features.
Read the full SOS ordinance here.
The fact that the ordinance severely impacts some property values does not make it invalid, arbitrary, unreasonable, inefficient or ineffective...(and) such limitations are a nationally recognized method of preserving water quality.
— Texas Supreme Court Justice Greg Abbott
