ANNEXATION HALT: City officials raise concerns

By HEATHER CATHLEEN COX
Staff Writer
Reporter@sbnewspaper.com

The City of San Benito is calling on State Representative Eddie Lucio III (D-Brownsville) and Senator Eddie Lucio Jr. (D-Brownsville) to take necessary steps to address the City of Brownsville’s strip annexation.

Strip annexation occurs when a city, town or municipality annexes an area smaller than 1,000 feet.

San Benito, in conjunction with Laguna Vista, is expressing concern and objection to Brownsville’s strip annexation which includes areas in not only San Benito and Laguna Vista but also the following Cameron County cities: Rio Hondo, Rancho Viejo, Bayview, Port Isabel, Los Indios and Los Fresnos.

In March of 2013, Sen. Lucio filed four bills to limit such annexations that would also cause certain cities to relinquish annexations. For example, verbiage in Senate Bill 1697 states, “Any city that has more than 10 miles of strip annexation must also include in its annexation plan the surrounding extraterritorial jurisdictional (ETJ). Cities must either annex these ETJ areas within three years of adding them to the annexation plan, or release the strip annexed areas.”

Brownsville’s annexation strategy has landlocked and stifled the growth of several smaller communities in Cameron County. San Benito Mayor Celeste Z. Sanchez said, “We’re asking legislators to look at the legality of cities strip annexing, especially when they cannot provide water, safety and sewage.”

Commissioner J. D. Penny said, “We are joining in with Laguna Vista and surrounding areas because Brownsville is trying to go around some of these towns, taking little strips and trying to maneuver around these towns. We’re trying to prevent them from doing that. They’re all the way up to our doorstep. Laguna Vista, Port Isabel, Los Fresnos … we’re trying to stop them from annexing all the way to our doorstep. San Benito is landlocked.”

On Feb. 3, the San Benito City Commission passed and approved a formal resolution to request that State Rep. Lucio and Sen. Lucio file Local Bills during the 83rd Legislative Session “to counteract the City of Brownsville’s annexation strategy and reverse these strip annexations … and allow the smaller communities in Cameron County to prosper and grow.”

The official request filed by the City states, “Brownsville does not appear to be extending municipal Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) to the ends of the strip annexations … and has effectively limited potential growth and development in San Benito … and whereas the City of Brownsville’s annexation strategy is contrary to the January 2009 findings of the Senate Committee on International Relations and Trade.”

“Annexation is Vital to the Texas Economy,” stated Scott Houston, General Counsel with the Texas Municipal League. “Texas cities, unlike the cities of other states, don’t receive state financial assistance or state revenue-sharing. They don’t ask the state to help fund the facilities and services on which the city, region, and state rely. But cities do ask that their authority to take care of themselves not be eroded. The power to annex is one of those key authorities, and to lose it would be very detrimental to the state.”

Sanchez will be traveling to Austin on Tuesday, Feb. 10 for a Harlingen-San Benito Day at the Capitol. She, along with other local officials, will approach legislators regarding annexation as well as other local concerns.

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