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Area Information

Horseshoe Bay is currently subject to the extra territorial jurisdiction of Cottonwood Shores and Sunrise Beach.  Both cities have waived their ETJ for 1-year to enable us to incorporate those areas.  If voters approve incorporation in September, those ETJ's will be permanently removed.  If voters reject incorporation, those two cites' ETJ will remain in place.  Over the course of the next year or two, based on current activity in three other surrounding cities/communities, Horseshoe Bay will very likely be encumbered by their ETJs as well.

Click on the links around Horseshoe Bay to see what's going on in those cities/communities.

The ETJ is defined in the statutes as being the unincorporated area within a specified distance from the incorporated boundaries of a municipality, expandable by an action of the municipality, without the requirement for permission from the area being included.  Annexation is the act of taking an unincorporated area into the incorporated area and since the expansion of the ETJ is merely the extension of the boundary of the unincorporated area, outside the area being annexed, it does not seem that it can be construed as an act of annexation.  I would refer you to the following statutes:

§ 42.021.  EXTENT OF EXTRATERRITORIAL JURISDICTION.  The extraterritorial jurisdiction of a municipality is the unincorporated area that is contiguous to the corporate boundaries of the municipality and that is located:
(1)  within one-half mile of those boundaries, in the case of a municipality with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants; (Cottonwood, Sunrise Beach, Bluehaven)
(2)  within one mile of those boundaries, in the case of a municipality with 5,000 to 24,999 inhabitants; (Marble Falls & soon Granite Shoals)
(3)  within two miles of those boundaries, in the case of a municipality with 25,000 to 49,999 inhabitants;
(4)  within 3-1/2 miles of those boundaries, in the case of a municipality with 50,000 to 99,999 inhabitants;  or
(5)  within five miles of those boundaries, in the case of a municipality with 100,000 or more inhabitants.

Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 149, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1987.                   

§ 42.022.  EXPANSION OF EXTRATERRITORIAL JURISDICTION. 

(a)  When a municipality annexes an area, the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the municipality expands with the annexation to comprise, consistent with Section 42.021, the area around the new municipal boundaries.
(b)  The extraterritorial jurisdiction of a municipality may expand beyond the distance limitations imposed by Section 42.021 to include an area contiguous to the otherwise existing extraterritorial jurisdiction of the municipality if the owners of the area request the expansion.
(c)  The expansion of the extraterritorial jurisdiction of a municipality through annexation, request, or increase in the number of inhabitants may not include any area in the existing extraterritorial jurisdiction of another municipality.

Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 149, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1987.

This seems clear to me in 42.022(a) that the ETJ territory automatically expands with annexation of new areas, and, such automatic ETJ expansion is only restricted to exclude areas that are in the ETJ of another municipality.  Because permission is required if the ETJ boundary extends past the distance specified in 42.021, this also implies that no permission is required within the unincorporated area into which the ETJ expands, provided the distance is not greater than that specified in 42.021.

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