14 - Action on Disannexation Petition - located on CR 22500

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Lamar County has entered into a tax abatement agreement with Nexus/other property owners, and Chisum ISD either has entered or is working towards entering a Chapter 313 agreement with the developers with respect to this project. STATUS OF ISSUE: The city's annexation/disannexation policy (see attached Exhibit B`) provides that "the City will consider disannexation of any area within its corporate limits if so requested by a majority of property owner(s) and if the area fails to meet at least one of the above seven criteria, and if ...the proposed disannexation is part of an identifiable, logical whole (versus individual parces) which neither creates `holes' inside the existing corporate city limits, nor forces any other area of the city outside the revised boundary line (`islands' outside the revised lines)."' See Exhibit B. D. 16. The seven factors relate to: • Whether the parcels form an enclave; • Whether the area has developed as an urban area; • Whether the area is a designated growth center; • Whether the retaining the area within the city limits would result in an adverse impact to the city, including adverse fiscal impacts; • Whether disannexation would present an opportunity for incorporation of the area into a new municipality or for an existing municipality to annex the area; • Whether the area is populated with residential development; and • Whether the area is proposed for long-term development. See Exhibit B. pp. 15-16 for the full text of the policy.' Each of these criteria also contains a requirement relating to the provision of city services. In this instance, the Council may consider the property for disannexation because (a) the area proposed to be disannexed comprises more that an individual parcel (although the fact that it is only four parcels makes this point arguable given the language of the policy); (2) the area is not populated with residential development (criteria #6); and (3) disannexation of the area will not create any keyholes or islands. Nexus does not argue that the city has failed to provide services to the area; rather it argues that by disannexing the area, the city will be absolved from providing services, and that will be a benefit to the city. In reality, the area will continue to receive both fire and EMS services under existing agreements between the city and Lamar County, and in any event, given the nature of solar farms, the Paris Fire Department would be dispatched to any fire calls at the Project because it is the regional provider of hazmat services in this part of the state. The primary issue with disannexation of the proposed area as far as the city is concerned is that of lost potential property tax revenue. Nexus has estimated taxes on the parcels for the next 30 years in an amount between $307,267.00 (using the 400 foot setback) and $768,167.00 (using the 50 foot setback) based on the 2023-2024 tax rate and taking into account depreciation of the assets. In discussions and meetings with staff, Nexus has proposed entering into an agreement with the 1 Underlining is original to the text; italics are added by the authors. The policy requires only that the city consider disannexation, not that the city grant it. z The policy for disannexation is simply the inverse of the policy for annexation. Other than the prohibitions against keyholes and islands, the policy on disannexation is sparse. Likewise, state law regarding disannexation is simply that the procedures used in disannexing property must not conflict with the procedures for annexing property. 3 The agreement could take the form of a development agreement, a disannexation agreement, or a Chapter 380 agreement. The type of agreement would be determined in the negotiation process.