Denton City Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to move forward with the annexation of thousands of acres of land, ignoring pleas from rural residents to spare their land from city rules and taxes.

The council gave preliminary approval to the annexation of 15 areas totaling about 7,480 acres, including four large tracts northwest of Denton. The second of two required votes is set for May 4.

The action Tuesday came in a series of 7-0 votes with little public discussion, leading some landowners to complain the council was rubber-stamping the plan. Council members have held multiple closed-door meetings with attorneys on the annexations, including one just before Tuesday’s meeting.

“It was rigged,” said Richard Burch, a retired farmer whose 470 acres are among those targeted. “They already knew what they were going to vote for before they got here.”

The council also approved a series of agreements with agricultural landowners in the targeted areas, including Burch, that will keep their land outside city limits for at least five years.

A city can’t annex land appraised for agricultural use without first offering the owner a non-annexation agreement, also known as a development agreement. The agreements allow the land to stay outside city limits under limited municipal control if certain development doesn’t occur there.

Under state law, the agreements can be good for up to 15 years and renewed twice for a total of 45 years, if the city and landowner agree to the extensions. Denton-area landowners complained that the city offered five-year agreements with no guarantee of renewal. They had less than a month to decide whether to sign the agreements before a city-imposed deadline of Jan. 15.

Landowner Billie Glosser said she signed the agreement “under duress” because she faced the prospect of immediate annexation otherwise. “I don’t really want to have my name on that non-annexation agreement, but I didn’t really have any choice,” she said.

Glosser said she had to hire an attorney and spend $1,000 to rework the agreement when the city initially refused to accept it.

Multiple landowners said they had to re-sign the agreements, some as late as Monday, after the city notified them of errors in the documents. City Attorney Anita Burgess explained that a title examiner had found discrepancies in the legal descriptions of some properties.

Mayor Mark Burroughs defended the five-year term of the non-annexation agreements, saying the city needs the ability to plan for the expansion of water and sewer lines, roads and other infrastructure in and around the targeted areas.

“We’ll know a lot more as we go forward in five years and have the ability to consider [extending the term of] each one individually at that time,” Burroughs said.

Turnout at Tuesday’s meeting was small compared with last month’s public hearings, which attracted overflow crowds in the council chambers. Several landowners blamed the 4 p.m. starting time, saying many opponents couldn’t get off work to attend.

“The city has proven that it can make it inconvenient for your neighbors to be a part of your agenda by making these last few meetings during business hours,” landowner Melissa Vardas said, adding that city leaders had already shown they didn’t care about residents’ views by their indifference to earlier feedback.

City leaders have defended the annexations as vital to helping them control growth and land use and plan for new infrastructure. Annexation opponents say they don’t want city taxes or regulations that would threaten their rural lifestyles.

Opponents have also questioned the city’s ability to provide services in the newly annexed areas and have challenged the stated reasons for the annexations, saying many of the areas aren’t expected to develop anytime soon. A city analysis last month found the annexations could cost Denton’s general fund more than $2.6 million over 10 years, but critics have accused the city of understating the costs.

LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com .