Res 2014-119/Adopting an Annexation and Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (“ETJ”) Management Strategy

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Annexation / Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) Management Strategy Vision San Marcos, the City's adopted Comprehensive Plan, sets goals and objectives for the City. The Vision Statement for the Land Use element of the Comprehensive Plan states "We envision San Marcos as a community with balanced and diverse land uses that expand our lifestyle choices while protecting and enriching our historical, cultural, and natural resources." The first goal of this element is to "Direct growth, compatible with surrounding uses." A primary objective under this goal is to "Update the Annexation / Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) Management Plan." In accordance with this direction, staff has developed this Annexation / ETJ Management Strategy for City Council consideration and adoption. Every annexation and ETJ decision should be policy driven and evaluated in terms of how it fits with the annexation - related goals and policies of the comprehensive plan and with this strategy. Annexation and ETJ management should be viewed as a continuous process that begins with ETJ best management practices and ends with annexation into the City. The strategy is intended to facilitate annexation as a means of ensuring that San Marcos fully benefits from development in the ETJ and to protect and, when possible, extend the ETJ. The Strategy includes the following elements: • Managing the City's Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) • Annexation Planning • Strategy Implementation • City Staff's development of a written Annexation Resources Supplement to facilitate the implementation of this Strategy Managing the ETJ What is the ETJ? Because, with the exception of City -owned land, San Marcos may only annex land within its ETJ, this strategy begins with ETJ management. San Marcos' ETJ is the contiguous unincorporated land within a 3.5 mile radius extending from and adjacent to the city limits that is not within another city's ETJ. The purpose of the ETJ is to allow cities to plan for growth in the area outside their corporate boundaries and to annex new development. The ETJ does this in two ways. First, there is a statutory prohibition against a municipality annexing into another city's ETJ. This provides a city with land that it alone can annex encouraging planning and utility extensions in the ETJ. Second, cities are authorized to enforce their subdivision regulations and infrastructure standards (and a very limited number of other regulations) in their ETJ. This ensures that development in the ETJ meets the city's development standards further facilitating annexation. I111age