The public will have a chance to weigh in this month on a plan to absorb thousands of acres of land into Denton.

The city is considering a plan to annex 18 areas totaling about 9,000 acres, including four large tracts of land northwest of Denton and smaller unincorporated pockets scattered throughout the city.

Public hearings are scheduled for Jan. 12 and 19 ahead of a final City Council vote May 4.

The Denton Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously endorsed the plan Dec. 9. Under the city charter, a supermajority of the seven-member City Council is required to grant final approval, meaning two or more no votes could stop the annexation.

The proposal would increase Denton’s size by about 16 percent and give the city more power to control growth and land use in the targeted areas. The plan is upsetting some Denton County residents who don’t want to pay city taxes or change their rural lifestyles.

About 40 residents from the affected areas gathered at First Christian Church in Denton on Tuesday night to share information. The meeting revealed confusion over details of the city proposal and the complexities of annexation law. Some residents said they’d heard conflicting information from city staff members.

“I think it became fairly evident that this is the first time for most of us to have any firsthand experience with annexation, so we’re largely in the dark about what can be done, both by us and the city,” said Don Womack, who owns 132 acres west of Denton Airport inside a 1,165-acre tract targeted for annexation. “I think it would be fair to say that we are unanimously opposed to being brought into the city and don’t feel they have anything to offer to us.”

The city’s comprehensive plan calls for an aggressive annexation policy to manage the density and quality of growth. Denton’s land mass has grown by more than 40 percent since the plan’s adoption in 1999, and some have questioned the city’s ability to provide adequate services to annexed areas as state law requires.

The city is still studying how much it would cost to serve the targeted areas. The council is expected to receive that analysis Jan. 19.

The initial targeted areas, announced in March, covered about 11,600 acres and included five large tracts north and west of Denton and various unincorporated pockets within the city, commonly called “doughnut holes.”

Since then, city staff members prioritized the areas based on the cost of extending services and a desire to protect the corridors along Interstate 35 and a future western extension of Loop 288, among other criteria.

In September, the planning department recommended annexing most of the doughnut holes and three of the large tracts northwest of the city. City Council member Joe Mulroy asked to restore the 1,165-acre property west of Denton Airport to the proposal so the city could have more control over airport-area development.

Also, officials determined that three of the doughnut holes had more than 100 lots with at least one home, meaning they would fall under a state law requiring a three-year annexation process. During that process, the city will have to explain how it would provide services to the areas, which cover roughly 1,500 acres and include about 560 homes.

Opposition expected

City officials say they expect the annexation to face resistance — especially in the doughnut holes, where many landowners already get city fire, police, water and sewer services to varying degrees.

“In a sense you’re getting representation without taxation, so why would I want to be annexed if I’m getting the services and not paying for them?” Mark Cunningham, the city’s planning and development director, told planning commissioners last month. “So I’m sure there’s going to be opposition.”

Mayor Mark Burroughs has said many of the affected properties are agricultural and could stay that way, meaning their city taxes would be negligible. He could not be reached for comment for this article.

State law provides a way for agricultural land targeted for annexation to stay outside city limits under limited municipal rule.

A city can’t annex land appraised for agricultural use without first offering the landowner a non-annexation agreement, also known as a development agreement. The agreements are good for up to 15 years and can be renewed twice for a total of 45 years if the city and landowner agree to the extensions, according to the Texas Local Government Code.

All of the large tracts targeted for annexation and many of the doughnut holes contain some agricultural land, so the city must offer landowners non-annexation agreements, city planner Johnna Matthews told planning commissioners last month.

“Essentially, what this development agreement might say is that the city will not annex you for 15 years if you have that ag exemption, as long as you do not attempt to develop the property,” Matthews said.

However, landowners who gathered Tuesday at the Denton church said the city offered them agreements good for only five years. They have until Jan. 15 to respond, meaning they’ll have to decide whether to sign the agreements before knowing whether the council approves the annexation.

“Our beef really is that the city has done this very rapidly without giving us what we consider ample time to decipher what is best for us as landowners,” said Robin Gregory, who lives with her family on 10 acres west of the airport.

Cunningham said the city offered the same agreement to everyone whose land is appraised for agricultural use. City officials decided five-year agreements would best accomplish the original goals of the annexation, including the desire to control development, he said.

“Some people will most definitely try to negotiate” terms of the agreements, Cunningham said in an interview Thursday. “I’m not sure where those negotiations will end up.”

Some landowners at the meeting Tuesday said they still had not received offers from the city. Others got them in the mail just before Christmas, when key city staff members were unavailable to answer questions.

The agreements appear to limit landowners’ rights to subdivide properties and deed them to their children, Gregory said. Also, the city is making vague promises to offer police and fire protection, even as some other services would have to wait on future developers, she said.

“We’ve been told that as far as sewer and water [service], no, that is a developer’s responsibility to put the infrastructure in,” she said.

Gregory said her family chose to live in the country — free to keep livestock, shoot skeet and otherwise enjoy the land, without breaking city codes.

“That’s the type of lifestyle we want,” she said. “We don’t want any big government to tell us what we can and cannot do.”

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

Coming up

Key dates in Denton’s annexation schedule:

* Jan. 12 (6:30 p.m.) — First public hearing before the City Council

* Jan. 19 (noon) — Second public hearing

* Feb. 9 — First reading of the annexation ordinance

* May 4 — Second reading of the annexation ordinance and possible adoption

* For more information about Denton’s annexation plans, including maps of the targeted areas, visit the city’s Web site at www.cityofdenton.com/index.aspx?page=1149 or call the planning department at 940-349-8541.

SOURCE: city of Denton