Overview:

The City of Georgetown (“City”) is the sole owner of approximately 80.79 acres of right-of-way in the southwestern portion of the City’s Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ), upon which the City and County are jointly constructing the Southwest Bypass, a future City roadway. The City desires to annex the right-of-way into the city limits, so that the City can maintain operate the roadway when it opens, in accordance with various existing agreements.

HB 347 of the 2019 Texas Legislature removed many of the annexation powers of municipalities. However, pursuant to Section 43.1055 of the Local Government Code, the City may still annex right-of-way into the city limits upon request of the owner of the right-of-way. The annexation of right-of-way under Section 43.1055 triggers the non-consent annexation procedures of Subchapter C-1 of the Local Government Code, including the requirement of two public hearings before a municipality may institute annexation proceedings, the requirement that the annexation must be completed within 90 days after the date the proceedings are instituted, and the requirement that City Staff prepare a service plan for the area to be annexed before annexation. Furthermore, under Section 43.054 of the Local Government Code, the area to be annexed must be 1,000 feet in width at its narrowest point unless the annexation is initiated upon the written petition of the owner(s) of the area to be annexed. This Resolution serves as the written petition of the owner of the area to be annexed, as well as the request of the owner of the right-of-way for annexation.

In addition, the annexation of the Southwest Bypass Right-of-Way would cause the area identified in Exhibit “C” attached to the Resolution to be entirely surrounded by the City of Georgetown, but it would not include the area within the municipality. Under Section 43.057 of the Local Government Code, if a proposed annexation would cause an area to be entirely surrounded by the annexing municipality but would not include the area within the municipality, the City Council must find, before completing the annexation, that surrounding the area is in the public interest. The area identified in Exhibit C is subject to an existing Industrial District Agreement between the City and the owner, and the construction of the Southwest Bypass and annexation of this right-of-way is in furtherance of said agreement. Accordingly, Staff recommends that it is in the public interest to annex this right-of-way and surround the area identified in Exhibit C.

City Staff has been directed to prepare a service plan for the area to be annexed in accordance with Section 43.056 of the Local Government Code, and the City Secretary has been directed to commence the publication of notices of two public hearings and place upon the City Council Agendas the consideration of the passage of an ordinance annexing said area into the city limits in accordance with State Law. The tentative schedule for said hearings and ordinance consideration shall be as follow, but in no event shall the annexation be completed any later than December 31, 2019:

Meeting Schedule:

• September 24, 2019: City Council Resolution - COMPLETED

• October 22, 2019: 1st Public Hearing at City Council Meeting @ 3pm - TODAY

• October 22, 2019: 2nd Public Hearing at City Council Meeting @ 6pm

• November 26, 2019: 1st Reading of Ordinance at City Council Meeting

• December 10, 2019: 2nd Reading of Ordinance at City Council Meeting

No action is required with today's public hearing.

Public Comments:

As required by the Unified Development Code, all public entities were notified and a legal notice advertising the public hearings was placed in the Sun Newspaper (October 10, 2019). To date, staff has not received any public comment.