2009-07-23
Lakehills looks at incorporation
By Stephanie Parker
More than 100 Lakehills and Mico residents banded together on Tuesday, July 14, at the Lakehills Civic Center to discuss the how, when, where and why of incorporating the Lakeplex to protect it from the northward-marching city limits of San Antonio.
Mico residents Jim Wilbourn and Carol Smith and Lakehills residents Karen Ripley and Robert Pachecano ran the well-organized meeting that provided information on incorporation but did not make an argument for or against it.
Ripley, a realtor who serves as a director of the Bandera County River Authority and Groundwater District, was involved in the failed 2003 Lakehills incorporation attempt. Even so, she told the audience, “I really haven’t made up my mind yet about incorporation.”
Pachecano, who organized the wildly popular Medina Lake Preservation Society’s (MLPS) fundraiser, “Rhythm and Rhymes,” said the meeting was not to take a stand on the issue but to provide Lakeplex residents with the information they needed to decide for themselves.
Using the now-extinct fresh water jellyfish that inhabited Medina Lake in 1993 as an example, Pachecano urged Lakeplex residents to work together to protect their unique heritage. “For example,” he offered half-jokingly and half-seriously, “MLPS is selling copies of this CD of freshwater jellyfish for $3 as a fundraiser. When you have family or company over, you can pull this out and play it for them to show them what used to live in our lake.”
Why incorporate?
Ripley said that Mico and Lakehills residents had more in common with each other than with other communities in their respective counties. “We’re all neighbors. We are not our county seats and while we are represented well by our commissioners, our unique issues are not addressed.”
She said that fear of San Antonio’s high taxes being imposed on the Lakeplex if San Antonio annexed the area should not be the main focus of the incorporation effort.
“ We need to preserve our lifestyle and not be stepchildren in our counties. If we incorporate, we will control our future through locally governed communities. Citizens would have a voice,” Ripley said. “Lakehills’ lakefront property owners pay the highest taxes in Bandera County and live in the most densely populated part of the county but don’t have a voice. We need more control of our destiny.”
While Bandera had a population of less than 1,000, six years ago, Lakehills had 4,600 residents six years ago, Ripley pointed out. She said that a Lakehills incorporation would stop San Antonio from including the area in its extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ).
“What would you get from incorporation?” Ripley asked. “You could pursue grant money. You would be protected from San Antonio’s quadruple tax rate. You could collect franchise and utility fees. Your voice would be represented on important issues. You could set sales tax. You would get protection from developers cutting up densely populated areas into subdivisions. You could vote for volunteer leaders.”
Other benefits, she said, would be increased real estate values, a 100 percent better chance of getting a post office and the ability to attract incorporated businesses.
The downside of incorporating, Ripley said, would be in absorbing major expenses like road improvements.
How to incorporate
Like Ripley, Smith pointed out that Mico and Lakehills share more similarities than differences. “We are both resort communities, The Lakeplex,” she said. “I see Medina Lake as a community even through it is under two separate county governments.”
Comparing incorporation to liver, Smith said, “Either you love it or you hate it.”
She said Mico’s 1989 incorporation attempt lost by 17 votes. “We’ve grown immensely since then. We tried again in 1994, but never got past the talking stage.”
Smith said her property became a part of San Antonio’s ETJ 15 years ago, before state law prohibited cities from using “wheel spoke” annexation to absorb land on their outskirts. “Now they must be contiguous or able to provide services from day one,” she said. “And to incorporate that part of Mico that is already in their ETJ, we would need to present a petition to the City of San Antonio asking them to release us from their ETJ.”
If either Lakehills or Mico decided to incorporate, Smith said, they would need to choose the designation of city, town or village. Then they would need to decide on either general law or home rule government under Texas statues. “General law is the most common,” she explained. “But with home rule you can write your own charter as long as you don’t interfere with state laws. A home rule incorporation must be adopted by the Texas House and Senate, so it takes longer. It is a better fit because with home rule, you have the full power of local self-government.”
Smith said incorporated areas could elect aldermen, a commission or council members, depending on the self-designated type of city.
She emphasized, “You can tax and spend but you do not have to tax and spend. If you tax, you have to spend. But you can decide not to tax at all and not to provide more services for the incorporated area than the services that are already available. Elected officials can be volunteers.”
She admitted that in past incorporation efforts, “Taxation is a big issue for those against it. You may levy taxes, but you don’t have to.”
Questions were collected from the audience and Wilbourn read them while Smith and Ripley provided answers. Surprisingly, the number one question was: can Mico and Lakehills incorporate together even though they are in two different counties?
With that much interest in cobbling together a “Lakeplex,” the disappointing answer was, no. Lakehills and Mico can incorporate at the same time, but not together to form one village, town or city.
The other popular question involved boundaries of the proposed incorporated areas. Without further research, that question was left unanswered.
It appeared that the question of boundaries was the only issue that the panelists failed to address during the meeting. No further questions were asked and the meeting adjourned as scheduled.
