Voluntarily Annexing into the Town

[Simeon White]

At our regular town meeting December 13th 2022, we discussed making a window of opportunity for citizens to state their interest in voluntarily annexing into the town. If memory serves, we were also going to mention this on our website and put it in our newsletter.

This topic is for the presentation of information, resource sharing, discussion of citizen/council questions, and for providing a forum to discuss and weigh the pros and cons of a voluntary annexation project.

[PoetryTexasSuperAdmin]

I personally would be interested to hear why people are wanting to self-annex. I understand that voting for, and possibly running for, council has been a stated reason. However, there are only a handful of properties that are adjacent to the town limits but don’t already have part of their property in the town, and thus would already be able to vote. I’ve attached a map highlighting the section I’m referring to.
This has been the only stated reason I’ve personally heard of to date.

I would, in a way, be very grateful to anyone who self-annexes, but I want to make sure they are doing so without any misunderstanding about what they would or wouldn’t be gaining from it. We don’t have any town services (firefighters, police, sewage, trash, etc.) and there are only a few people that would gain a vote by annexing, so I’d like to make sure that they are informed before making such a decision for what’s probably their most valuable asset, their land.

I believe Mayor Tara mentioned that she already had citizens reach out to her in the past about this, so I’d be interested in hearing what they have to say, if that can be provided.

[Simeon White]

I personally would be interested to hear why people are wanting to self-annex. I understand that voting for, and possibly running for, council has been a stated reason. However, there are only a handful of properties that are adjacent to the town limits but don’t already have part of their property in the town, and thus would already be able to vote. I’ve attached a map highlighting the section I’m referring to.
This has been the only stated reason I’ve personally heard of to date.

I would, in a way, be very grateful to anyone who self-annexes, but I want to make sure they are doing so without any misunderstanding about what they would or wouldn’t be gaining from it. We don’t have any town services (firefighters, police, sewage, trash, etc.) and there are only a few people that would gain a vote by annexing, so I’d like to make sure that they are informed before making such a decision for what’s probably their most valuable asset, their land.

I believe Mayor Tara mentioned that she already had citizens reach out to her in the past about this, so I’d be interested in hearing what they have to say, if that can be provided.

My apologies, I posted the above on the wrong account. I was fixing a technical problem with the forum and forgot to switch to my councilmen profile before replying.
It would be simpler to delete the above and repost it on this profile, but I’m afraid that would be against Sec. 551.006. Texas Local Government Code.

[Terry Fowler]

CM White
Thank you for starting this thread. I too, would like to know the reason/s why others would want to voluntarily annex.
It would indeed increase our foot print and potentially allow others to follow with voluntary annexation. I don’t want to lead the conversation as I truly want to hear from our citizens and others.

I do slightly disagree with a statement you made above. I don’t see the land as the “most valuable asset”. (Not in most cases). Typically the domicile (dwelling) is the highest taxable asset. I want citizens to have full knowledge of that because the town could pass a property tax in the future and that could have a big effect on your taxes.

[Brian Vinson]

If you use the term 'real estate', it would incorporate both the home and the land...and combined, real estate is generally an American family's most valuable asset.

I think the purpose of encouraging people to self-annex now, if they wanted to, was to give the citizens an expected timeline around maps being drawn and/or certified. Other than that, people should choose to self-annex (or not) based on their own thoughts. I spoke with a couple of people pre-incorporation who were not in the proposed Town limits. They said they would consider self-annexing just to be a part of the community and to show unity with the effort. Whether they choose to or not at this point is irrelevant. All I'm saying is the for some, this is reason enough. I'm not here trying to talk anyone into or out of; just saying that people make decisions for all kinds of reasons and whatever they are, we should respect them,

[Tara Senkevech]

We have had one couple inquiry so far. Their reason is that they want to be able to vote and have a say in the Town of Poetry. The problem for them is that they have one family between them and so plan on discussing voluntarily annexing with their neighbor.