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Galveston Seeks Developer


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City seeks partner for flats project

By Leigh Jones

The Daily News

Published May 14, 2007

Despite the cost and difficulties involved, Sjostrom said groups from Houston to the Middle East have already expressed interest in the project...

http://news.galvestondailynews.com/story.l...c5a92ed9e272ac0

Hidden Treasure

0106_LOC_eastflats1.jpg

The University of Texas Medical Branch is visible beyond the 600 acres of the East End Flats. The city hopes to find developers interested in transforming the site into a mixed-use development.

Published May 14, 2007

Photos by Jennifer Reynolds

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  • 7 months later...
How about they just leave it like it is? There's no real need to develop the entirety of Galveston Island.

It's effectively inaccessible and has very little value anyways for recreational use, yet it is behind the seawall. Seems like the ideal place to put new development. Far better here than West End.

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  • 4 weeks later...
More land to grow. More tax base, too. Galveston could more than double its size.

Why would they want to grow? There may be an additional tax base to capture, but then they'd only have to provide services.

I mean it's hard enough to run an island that is as long as the City of Houston is wide with a population of merely 55,000, but you want to have them annex an even more sparsely-populated land mass that is across two miles of un-bridged water. Why?

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Why would they want to grow? There may be an additional tax base to capture, but then they'd only have to provide services.

I mean it's hard enough to run an island that is as long as the City of Houston is wide with a population of merely 55,000, but you want to have them annex an even more sparsely-populated land mass that is across two miles of un-bridged water. Why?

Over the next century that area won't be so sparsely populated anymore, the entire region is growing at a very fast pace, and I would not at all be suprised to see Galveston annex land off of the island in the distant future. It does not make since to do so now, but the day will probably come to where it may be necessary. Of course, I do not see them ever annexing Bolivar, but maybe on the mainland near I-45 as population and growth needs allow. Compare Katy and the Spring/Woodlands area 50 years ago versus today...

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Over the next century that area won't be so sparsely populated anymore, the entire region is growing at a very fast pace, and I would not at all be suprised to see Galveston annex land off of the island in the distant future. It does not make since to do so now, but the day will probably come to where it may be necessary. Of course, I do not see them ever annexing Bolivar, but maybe on the mainland near I-45 as population and growth needs allow. Compare Katy and the Spring/Woodlands area 50 years ago versus today...

The City of Katy has not annexed the suburbs that most people associate with it. Spring is unincorporated, and the nearest city had been Cypress, but it was dissolved as a jurisdiction in the early 90's. Spring, Cypress, and parts of the suburbs associated with Katy are actually in the Houston ETJ, but Houston has not been willing to annex anything but the commercial corridors because they'd only end up having to spend more money providing services to the area than they'd take in. The Woodlands is also unincorporated and in the Houston ETJ, and among all the suburbs, it is probably the one that has the strongest case for incorporation (whether by annexation or self-rule) but even then Houston divested itself of the possibility to annex the area.

Annexation carries with it a lot of intricate financial implications, and getting to the point at which it is politically viable for a big expansion of a city's boundaries is really exceedingly difficult. Even if Bolivar's population or does grow dramatically...and I haven't made any argument that it wouldn't...I wouldn't expect that an existing city would come in and snatch it all up. A new city would more likely be incorporated. As for the mainland, most of what is nearer to Galveston is either marsh, is owned by the Audubon Society, or is within another city's ETJ.

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The City of Katy has not annexed the suburbs that most people associate with it. Spring is unincorporated, and the nearest city had been Cypress, but it was dissolved as a jurisdiction in the early 90's. Spring, Cypress, and parts of the suburbs associated with Katy are actually in the Houston ETJ, but Houston has not been willing to annex anything but the commercial corridors because they'd only end up having to spend more money providing services to the area than they'd take in. The Woodlands is also unincorporated and in the Houston ETJ, and among all the suburbs, it is probably the one that has the strongest case for incorporation (whether by annexation or self-rule) but even then Houston divested itself of the possibility to annex the area.

Annexation carries with it a lot of intricate financial implications, and getting to the point at which it is politically viable for a big expansion of a city's boundaries is really exceedingly difficult. Even if Bolivar's population or does grow dramatically...and I haven't made any argument that it wouldn't...I wouldn't expect that an existing city would come in and snatch it all up. A new city would more likely be incorporated. As for the mainland, most of what is nearer to Galveston is either marsh, is owned by the Audubon Society, or is within another city's ETJ.

I was aware that the majority of those areas were unincorporated, I was mearly stating those area's for growth. Much like the area on Bolivar is unincorportated, eventually it will see growth. Whether those area's are within a municipality or not is another topic, but the fact that those areas have grown in with subdivisions and business is more or less what I was getting at. But you do make a very valid point about the marshes, I had forgotten that area near 45 was marshy...

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The only available territory left in Galveston County for the city of Galveston to annex is Bolivar peninsula. All of the mainland is within another municipalities ETJ. LaMarque and Texas City have annexed up to the cauesway. Tiki Island is incorporated itself. Hitchcock has annexed all along the intercoastal canal up to the Brazoria County line.

Crystal Beach was incorporated at on time during the late 70's up until the mid 80's when a de-incorparation election was held and passed. Galveston County took back maintenance of the roads and supplies sherriffs patrols to the area.

Annexation is now more cumbersome for cities to accomplish. The areas being annexed must be put into a five year plan and filed with the state. A certain number of milestones, (public hearings, statistical reporting and such) have to be met along the way or the annexation can be challenged by the residents. The exeption to this method is iwhen the landowner's themselves request to be annexed.

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