Odessa's ETJ agreement

It sort of slipped under the radar, city planning director Marwan Khoury said, but Odessa's recent extraterritorial jurisdiction expansion is a huge step for future development.

"To me it's one of the biggest steps we've taken," Khoury said recently. "Nobody paid attention to it, but this is major."

Extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ, is a general term for areas of land that extend just beyond a city's limits. The idea is to give cities breathing room to grow.

All of Odessa's ETJ land is up for annexation if city officials choose to go after it, Khoury said, and anything built within an ETJ has to conform to city zoning laws, making it easier for cities to take over once an annexation agreement is reached.

Midland can't annex anything in Odessa's ETJ and vice versa.

For cities with 100,000 people or less, ETJs extend out 3.5 miles. For cities with 100,000 or more, it's five miles, which Khoury expects Odessa to hit once 2010 Census results are released.

City Council members unanimously approved an ETJ expansion agreement with the city of Midland in late September, which extends the eastern boundaries of Odessa's ETJ by 23 square miles. Khoury said this effectively sets the city's eastern boundary permanently and gives city officials control over the development boom that's happening on Odessa's east side.

And all that development will be within Odessa's city limits if annexation agreements are ever reached, which means more tax dollars to fund city services.

"It's very important to us in that it opens up more of Odessa's east side for growth," City Manager Richard Morton said. "Before the agreement with Midland, our ETJs butted up against each other, and Midland's came fairly far into what you would consider Odessa."

Khoury said Odessa approached Midland about an ETJ expansion partly because of developer Larry Lee's plans for an 800-acre business park between Interstate 20 and Second Street.

Lee said he bought the land early this year but stalled development because city of Midland officials didn't think it was feasible to extend water and sewer to the area.

Odessa's ETJ expansion solves that problem.

"We were in the Midland ETJ and had to wait until Odessa had control," Lee said. "The city of Midland wasn't going to help develop the area because it was too far away from their services."

Khoury said city officials were in the same boat as Lee when it came to planning future development. Now the city can better foresee how Odessa will shape up in the next 20 to 30 years from south of Interstate 20 to north of Yukon Road if officials know they have the option to annex if they want, Khoury said.

He envisions a mix of retail, commercial and residential development, with the east side filling up before Odessa moves north or south.

"I doubt it's going to happen in my lifetime, but at least the city of Odessa knows exactly where it stands so we can plan our capital improvement program and extend water and sewer based on this line," Khoury said. "Before we were afraid to go anywhere and spend any money because it was beyond our control."

Mayor Larry Melton, Morton and City Council members praised city of Midland officials in September for agreeing to the ETJ expansion so willingly.

Morton said the cities worked on a game plan for months, but normally it's not that easy. Midland's essentially giving up part of what would eventually be a tax base, but the majority of Odessa's expanded ETJ lies within Midland County's borders, so it's also a good deal for them, Khoury said.

And extending water and sewer out so far would be cost-prohibitive. 

"Half the cities in Texas have litigation on ETJ and who wants to annex what," he said. "Here we don't have it. We were so desperate to grow. We asked them to adjust it without giving anything away, and they said OK."

AT A GLANCE

>> What: Odessa's ETJ expansion agreement with the city of Midland.

>> When: City Council members approved the measure in late September.

>> Why: This extends the city's limits on the east side and permanently sets the boundaries between Odessa and Midland.