Annexation - please explain (Austin, Pflugerville: 2010, home, neighborhood)

[mm57553]

I really don't understand the whole annexation thing. I mean, I know what it is, I just don't understand how cities get away with it or if there is any way for an area to avoid it. It seems similar to Eminant Domain, but even that requires some valid reason, other than generating more tax money.

The whole Lost Creek annexation just got me thinking. Can someone please explain it to me? How are they allowed to do this?

BTW - I just read an article that said the average homeowner in Lost Creek will have to pay $1800 more in taxes and services for the priviledge of being annexed.

I'm worried because I'm sure the city will eventually try to annex Steiner Ranch. And it looks like we wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

[austin-steve]

This link will explain it all:
City of Austin - Annexation - Legislative Overview

Steve

[mm57553]

Well, that clears things up - NOT. They don't really go out of their way to make things clear, do they?

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

I don't know anything about it either. Is Lost Creek a subdivision? What does it mean if they are annexed? Why would anyone want to pay more taxes? What is the reason behind the whole thing? What do they get when they annex? In other words, what are their payoffs and what made them want to annex in the first place?

[tourbound129]

I live in an area of Travis County slated to get annexed by Pflugerville in December 2010. My first tax bill with the added city tax would be due Jan 31, 2012.

The main benefit that we are going to get is better police and fire protection versus what we get with the Travis County Sheriff department. Unfortunately safety and response time come with an increased cost in the way of taxes. I for one don't mind it. It also gave us another option for a trash company which will pick up twice as much, provide recycling and cost about $100/year less.

Although it will require a work of god to make it happen we also have the potential to get city water instead of Manville water and Windermere wastewater. This would save the residents money every month plus provide cleaner and softer water.

If you are in the ETJ of the city, annexation is going to happen. The city isn't going to sit by and watch that tax revenue continue to go down the toilet.

[CptnRn]

These websites answer a lot of the questions answered here. Many developments request voluntary annexation in order to get improved city services. A developement outside of the city limits can sometimes avoid annexation by incorporating it self as a township, similar to Sunset Valley in SW Austin.

City of Austin - Annexation Process

City of Austin - Annexation - Lost Creek

Best wishes... R
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[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

What is ETJ?

[tourbound129]

Originally Posted by oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots

What is ETJ?

Extraterritorial jurisdiction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[atxcio]

To be fair, if Steiner Ranch got annexed by the City of Austin, you're taxes and service costs would probably go down. Here in Lost Creek, we have an older (30 years old), established MUD that had a very low tax rate & water/wastewater fees. So we kinda had an exceptionally good deal. Austin rates (tax anyway) are still good, more expensive than LC but less than Steiner. If the annexation were effective today, we'd go from just under 2% total property tax rate to about 2.18%. But we don't know what the actual difference will be until we are officially City of Austin, which is 2015 (for the residential sections).

The worst thing about annexation, in retrospect, was the uncertainty. I lived in NW Hills for 10 years and loved it, so I'm somewhat looking forward to being in a "neighborhood" in the City of Austin again.

[mm57553]

Our taxes in Steiner are so high partly because we pay into Travis County for some taxes and Williamson County for school taxes (which are higher than Travis County tax rates). I used to live in Austin proper, and trust me, our trash service is infinitely better (and cheaper) now than it ever was in Austin (it's handled by a private company). The Travis County Sheriff is located just down 620 and Hudson Bend Fire Co. has a station in Steiner.

But I could easily see the city trying to annex Steiner because it would mean a huge increase in tax revenues, considering the fact that home values are fairly high.