Has El Paso Annexed Any Land from the Surrounding Area? (Houston: city hall, homes)

[1979]

I know other large cities have annexed land adjacent to their land area. Charlotte,NC for example has added sq. mi. I know there is a lot of desert/waste land surrounding El Paso, just wandering if this has ever taken place, or will take place...

[Ozzman]

Happens almost once every 20 years here I would say. So far, and unlike most cities in Texas, El Paso is growing to the east and very quickly I might add. Communities near Pebble Hills and Edgemere off 375 have exploded, and I forsee Horizon and San Elizario becoming annexed into El Paso in the near future. After that, we may see the annex of Anthony within the next 30 years and have an El Paso NM near Exit 0.

[atrabilius]

Originally Posted by Ozzman

Happens almost once every 20 years here I would say. So far, and unlike most cities in Texas, El Paso is growing to the east and very quickly I might add. Communities near Pebble Hills and Edgemere off 375 have exploded, and I forsee Horizon and San Elizario becoming annexed into El Paso in the near future. After that, we may see the annex of Anthony within the next 30 years and have an El Paso NM near Exit 0.

Horizon City and the Texas side of Anthony are separate municipalities, which would be obstacles to El Paso gobbling them up even if they wanted to at City Hall, and San Elizario is on the other side of Socorro from El Paso. I think San Elizario incorporated long ago and tried to use the old act of incorporation to set up their city government again several years ago, but the Texas Secretary of State wouldn't let it. If San Elizario doesn't reincorporate, it may get absorbed into Socorro, which, I heard, has already started annexing land north of I-10 and south of Horizon City.

I can see El Paso maybe annexing Canutillo, Montana Vista and the Sparks, El Paso Hills and Colonia Revolucion colonias around Horizon City, as well as the empty desert beyond the eastern city limits between Montana Vista and Horizon City. I can even see it expanding into Hudspeth County someday along US 62-180, annexing Loma Linda Estates, though the farmers around Dell City might have a problem with that.

I think Nuway and Westway are close enough to Vinton (also an incorporated municipality) to where Vinton would have to give its permission for El Paso to annex them. Vinton might have a hard time finding the money to annex those areas itself.

[Gary Siete]

Atrabilius covered it well. I believe annexation typically, but not always, involves annexing unincorporated areas of a county - otherwise it's an amalgamation.

According to Wikipedia, El Paso County consists of:

Cities
El Paso
Horizon City
Socorro

Towns
Anthony
Clint

Villages
Vinton

Unincorporated areas
Agua Dulce
Butterfield
Canutillo
Fabens
Fort Bliss
Homestead Meadows North
Homestead Meadows South
Morning Glory
Newman
Prado Verde
San Elizario
Sparks
Tornillo
Westway

[malamute]

A few years ago El Paso tried to annex Canutillo and the citizens of Canutillo managed to fight off the annexation. Usually when the city does make a land grab it wins.

[atrabilius]

Originally Posted by malamute

A few years ago El Paso tried to annex Canutillo and the citizens of Canutillo managed to fight off the annexation. Usually when the city does make a land grab it wins.

I think Carlos Ramirez, who was mayor of El Paso at the time, said the city couldn't afford to provide Canutillo with city services. The El Paso Times was saying they're thinking about annexing Canutillo again at City Hall; Dan Haggerty, the county commissioner whose precinct contains Canutillo, said he'd help them fight annexation unless it was voluntary.

[HookTheBrotherUp]

Don't think that entity governments are obstacles; the City of El Paso can annex land all around a city, or village. Take the Dallas Metro-Plex, or Houston as prime examples. Houston is large, but within Houston are several cities with their own government (Bellaire, West University, South Houston, Memorial Village, South Side Place, Hedwig Village and on and on). Weird, but when a city gets that big, it becomes like a huge amoeba and just consumes all it can.

[atrabilius]

Originally Posted by HookTheBrotherUp

Don't think that entity governments are obstacles; the City of El Paso can annex land all around a city, or village. Take the Dallas Metro-Plex, or Houston as prime examples. Houston is large, but within Houston are several cities with their own government (Bellaire, West University, South Houston, Memorial Village, South Side Place, Hedwig Village and on and on). Weird, but when a city gets that big, it becomes like a huge amoeba and just consumes all it can.

Sure, Horizon City could end up encircled by El Paso and Socorro, unless it annexes a lot of land to the east along Horizon Boulevard, which includes several colonias which Horizon City would then have to provide services to. If all of them were annexed right now, Horizon City's population (about 6000 right now?) would jump substantially, by maybe 1000. I think the colonias to Horizon City's immediate southeast are in Socorro's extraterritorial jurisdiction and so Horizon City would need Socorro's permission to annex them.

Horizon City being absorbed into El Paso, being made a part of it, would be something else entirely.

[rb62]

I wasn't sure if Socorro was part of El Paso or not? It seems the border between Horizon and El Paso is obscure, and what about from El Paso to Anthony? It seems there's a lot of space that has nothing on it...

[atrabilius]

Originally Posted by rb62

I wasn't sure if Socorro was part of El Paso or not? It seems the border between Horizon and El Paso is obscure, and what about from El Paso to Anthony? It seems there's a lot of space that has nothing on it...

Yeah, the 79911 zip code on the northwest side is mostly empty, and the same is true for 79934 in Far Northeast; most of the developed area is along the southern fringe (Sean Haggerty Drive) and there's a huge amount of undeveloped land between that and Chaparral.

I think in a few years El Paso, Horizon City, and Socorro will have to get together to figure out their mutual boundaries and which city gets to annex what areas.