El Paso City Council unanimously votes to release over 2,000 acres of land to Horizon
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) – Tuesday, El Paso City Council unanimously voted to release more than 2,000 acres of land near Eastlake Boulevard. The land is within El Paso’s five-mile extraterritorial jurisdiction.
The council agreed to release approximately 2,295.613 acres of land South of Eastlake Boulevard and West of Darlington Road.
(Courtesy: City of El Paso)
Kevin Smith with planning and inspection defined extraterritorial jurisdiction as the ability for the city to regulate areas. In case there was ever an opportunity to annex the land, developments would have to conform to city requirements.
Smith said he doesn’t foresee any ability for the City of El Paso to annex the land. El Paso has no authority over the land besides subdivision control.
(Courtesy: City of El Paso)
The city does not tax the land, collect revenue from the land and the land is not provided with city services, according to Smith.
Horizon City made the request to annex the land so that new developments would be forced to comply with Horizon regulations and laws.
Horizon Mayor Andres Renteria said Horizon is looking for controlled growth. Releasing this land to Horizon would give Horizon City the ability to control the growth while regulating any new construction that comes up in that area.
Mayor Renteria said there are rogue developments that pop up in the annexed area that are trying to get away with not having to pull permits for certain buildings or structures.
“It gives us the ability to go out there and do an inspection and make sure that their construction was done in a correct manner. Again, we don’t want anybody to to get hurt. We want someone that has a business out in those areas to have access to fire, police, every other needed necessity, but by doing this, this kind of ensures that Horizon City is able to control them,” Mayor Renteria said.
Following Tuesday’s decision, Mayor Renteria said that within the year, they plan to annex the land. They’ve already started the process with the private owners of that land.
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