County Commissioners and City Council to hold Joint Workshop to Review Parkland, Subdivisions & ETJ Issues, and County Master Plan
By: Jose G. Landa, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2015
Maverick County Commissioners Court and the Eagle Pass City Council will be having a joint workshop in the immediate future to discuss Parkland Dedication Fees, Subdivision Guidelines within the Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ), and the adoption of a Master Plan by the county.
During the Maverick County Commissioners Court meeting held on Monday, September 14,2015, Maverick County Commissioner of Precinct 1 Jerry Morales sponsored an agenda item seeking the approval of a joint workshop between Commissioners Court and the Eagle Pass City Council to discuss these important property issues between the two governmental entities.
Maverick County Judge David R. Saucedo opened up agenda item No.19, discussion and possible action requesting to set a date for a joint workshop between the City of Eagle Pass and Maverick County.
“Judge, we had a meeting with the City in reference to certain issues. The idea that the Mayor came up with was having a workshop, so we can discuss these issues. He asked us that the only thing to having this joint workshop that it be after the 15th of September,” said Morales.
Maverick County Commissioner of Precinct 4 Roberto Ruiz asked what was the workshop in reference to?
“There are certain issues, one of them is the Parkland Dedication Fees, Subdivision Guidelines within the Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ), and the adoption of a master plan by the county. These issues will be listed in detail once the workshop notification gets posted. These are the three main issues,” said Morales.
“This item is just so we can instruct legal counsel to send a letter requesting the workshop,” added Morales.
Maverick County Judge David R. Saucedo asked if Commissioners Court had any questions or comments before putting the item up for a vote. There were no further comments or questions.
The agenda item was approved unanimously.
Parkland Dedication and fees are defined under the City of Eagle Pass Code of Ordinances, Article V- Parkland Dedication .The Eagle Pass City Council has determined that recreational areas in the form of public parks are necessary and benefit the well- being of the citizens of Eagle Pass. The council has further determined that a reasonable procedure for establishing such parks is the integration of a parkland dedication requirement into the procedure for subdividing property within the city limits or extraterritorial jurisdiction of Eagle Pass. All single family and multifamily residential subdivisions, therefore, shall be required to comply with the ordinance. It is the intention of this chapter to provide for quality parkland and improvements to those parklands; through either parkland property dedication or parkland cash contributions in lieu of property dedication. The city desires to provide sizable, high quality parkland sites for the use and enjoyment of its citizens. It is intended that such sites be easily accessible to all citizens of Eagle Pass and easily maintained by city work forces. The director of parks and recreation may recommend to the planning and zoning commission that a proposed parkland site dedication is unacceptable and may require parkland cash contributions in lieu of parkland property dedication. Such payments in lieu of parkland property dedication will be based upon the following criteria. To see the complete ordinance pertaining to Parkland Dedication you can go to https://www.municode.com/library/tx/eagle_pass/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICOOR_CH23SU.
