Proposed Annexation Draws Large Crowd

The La Feria City Commission held its regular meeting this past Tuesday, August 13th at 6:30 with a standing room only crowd in attendance.

Of the several items on the agenda for that evening it was the public hearing for the proposed annexation of four areas that brought residents to the meeting.

After the usual prayer and pledge, the meeting began with a report from TxDOT on La Feria related projects. The representative from TxDOT assured the commission that sidewalk improvements would be completed sometime around late September or early October. He also reported that a final grant that the City of La Feria had applied for had not been selected.

After the report from TxDOT, the City Commission moved on to the public hearing on annexation. City Planner Irene Szedlmayer gave a presentation on each area individually; showing each area on the map and identifying how many properties were contained in each and what the land is currently used for. After each presentation, the public hearing was opened up and the forum given to the public for comments and concerns.

The four areas identified for possible annexation are:

Rabb Road Annexation – approximately 272 acres of land with its north, east and south boundary on the current city limit lines. The west boundary is the drainage ditch west of Rabb Road (AN-49), south of Business Highway 83, ad the west boundary of Citrus Grove Subdivision, north of Business Highway 83.

Kelly Drive Annexation – the general boundaries of which are between the south right-of-way line of US Business Highway 83 and the south boundary of Block 6, Beakley Subdivision, from existing city limits on the west (curve in Kelly Drive), to the west ROW line of White Ranch Road.

FM 506 Annexation – The northern boundary of this area is the south boundary of Citrus Village Subdivision. The eastern boundary is east of FM 506 right-of-way line (current city limits). The west boundary is the west boundary of FM 506 and the south boundary is the line between Blocks 23 and 25 of the Minnesota Texas Land and Irrigation Co. Subdivision.

West Business 83 Annexation – The northern boundary of this area is the current city limit line. North of Business 83, the west boundary is the eastern right-of-way line of Mile 3 East and Kubiski road. The east boundary is the eastern ROW of FM 2556. South of Business 83, the west boundary is the eastern ROW line of FM 2556 and the east boundary is the east boundary of L&D Ranch Subdivision.

City leaders tried to stress the advantages of annexation including the extension of municipal services such as sewage and water to those areas, improvement of roads and the benefit of La Feria’s fire and police departments serving those areas.
Several residents voiced concerns about new restrictions on land usage once they were annexed by the City of La Feria.

“I’d like to give my land to my kids one day. Will I have trouble dividing it up amongst them later on once it’s considered part of the city?” asked one resident.

Many residents especially voiced concerns about being able to continue using their land for agriculture, despite reassurances from the mayor and city commissioners that all land usage would remain the same despite annexation and that development agreements could be made with the city so that agricultural land could be taxed at a lower rate.

Detailed draft plans and more detailed information on the proposed annexation can be found on the City of La Feria website at http://www.cityoflaferia.com/2013/08/13/proposed-annexation-for-2013.

There will be two more public hearings to discuss the proposed annexation at the August 27th and September 10th City Commission Meetings. The public is encouraged to attend.

The City Commission also approved an ordinance approving a negotiated resolution between the city and Texas Gas Service regarding their May 1st Cost of Service Adjustment filing and took action to accept Certification of Dept Serve Requirement for FY 2013-2014.
The Commission also took action to accept an Effective Tax Rate of .709317, Schedules and fund balances presented by City Tax Assessor/Collector followed by a discussion to approve a proposed tax rate for the tax year 2013 (FY 2013/2014).

The Commission then took action to record a vote on the proposed tax rate with plans to vote on the final rate at a future meeting.
Executive (Closed) sessions were tabled for the evening and the Commission ended the meeting with a report from City Manager Sunny K. Phillip on the status of several city projects, all of which are running on schedule, including the Library Expansion Project which should be completed by late September, the light system improvement project for A.J. Wilson Field, which will take less than 30 days to complete. The next scheduled meeting of the La Feria City Commission will be August 27th at 6:30 pm at the City Commission Meeting Room, 115 E. Commercial Ave., La Feria. The public is encouraged to attend.