Some residents have questions about GShoals annexation
The Granite Shoals sheet metal businessman received a notice in the mail that his property in the 3300 block of Prairie Creek may be absorbed into the city limits.
“Right now we’re not paying city taxes. If we’re going to start paying city taxes, then what is going to be the benefit to us?” said Irvin of H.D. Irvin Steel Erectors & Irvin Sheet Metal. “What are they going to do for us?”
Irvin’s business currently snuggles the outside edge of the incorporation boundaries. The property is among four different subdivision tracts — totaling about 180 acres — all eyed for potential annexation.
City plans would automatically zone newly annexed properties as residential-conforming, “grandfathering” existing businesses with a few stipulations for expansion.
But, annexed businesses would face yet another step involving the city’s Zoning and Planning Commission, facing a potential litmus test to continue operations, according to city officials.
On Nov. 20, the first public hearing on these plans left a handful of business owners, residents and even a potential new landowner perplexed about what could befall their properties after annexation.
“We don’t know anymore more before we walked in there to after we left,” Irvin said.
By the end of the 45-minute public hearing, he did find some consolation.
“(City officials were) very nice people. They seemed like they were trying to be very helpful,” Irvin said. “But, we didn’t learn a lot.
“We were referred to the city attorney with our questions,” Irvin added. “We don’t really know where we stand.”
Placing tax fears and communication concerns aside, Mayor Frank Reilly focused on the potential outcome.
“One way in which the people being annexed will benefit is code enforcement,” Reilly said. “(There’s) also police protection, insured fire protections. We are moving forward with our plans to put a sewage system in place.”
City leaders have yet to approve plans to install a wastewater system for the city, with a population of about 5,000.
However, Reilly predicts a new system in place in the next three to five years.
Even with such progress, some consider the lack of some basic city services a primary roadblock in growth while making the prospect of annexation less desirable for commerce.
“I think that’s one reason why they don’t get businesses in here like they should,” Harrel said. “They’re going to have to expand their infrastructure a little bit.”
Last year, Granite Shoals leaders became quite adept in expanding boundaries. The council approved annexing 136 acres, including frontage along RR 1431 West and the northernmost end of Phillips Ranch Road, the site of the new municipal building atop the former home of a rock mining company’s corporate offices.
Despite a lagging economy, Irvin and his brother, Paul, managed to keep their heads above water in a traditionally economically depressed area of the Highland Lakes.
Irvin and family spent over $15,000 clearing the land plagued by trash heaps and overgrown brush. The shop even survived the flood of ‘07.
Workers recently poured two slabs for additional buildings and expanded services on the property. However, annexation could potentially halt all the work.
“Do we continue the direction we’re going? Do we pick our stuff up and go somewhere else?” Irvin said. “We don’t want to spend tens of thousands of dollars and have them put a hold on our growth.”
The second and final public hearing on annexation is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Granite Shoals Municipal Building, 2101 N. Phillips Ranch Road.
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