Marble Falls annexes new land
By Glynis Crawford Smith
The Highlander
The City of Marble Falls grew by almost 76 acres Tuesday night, Feb. 21, when the city council approved the final ordinance accepting the voluntary annexation of land south of Lake Marble Falls.
For now, the property owned by the Ellison Roper Corporation and previously used for wildlife management, will enter the city zoned agricultural. However, the stated goal is to apply for re-zoning at anew Planned Development District (PDD).
The property has been part of the citys extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) and part of a five-year development agreement for voluntary annexation when development was going to take place.
“Voluntary annexations do not count against the total annexation the city is allowed,” said Assistant City Manager Caleb Kraenzel.
The council approved two cooperative agreements to benefit the city.
The first was an interlocal agreement that has been negotiated for some time with the City of Meadowlakes. Through the terms of the agreement, Meadowlakes will pay for the materials for 3,600 feet of eight-inch pipeline at a cost of about $40,000. It will carry treated wastewater for Meadowlakes golf course irrigation that Marble Falls will sell to them at the contract rate, the equivalent of about 44 cents per thousand gallons of water.
“The contract is for 10 years,” said Meadowlakes Mayor Mary Ann Raesener. “We pay for the materials, but we don't pay for water until use is about equal to the cost of materials.”.
The two benefits are a reduction on the fresh water drawn from Lake Marble Falls, a profitable use of treated wastewater from Marble Falls and infrastructure the city can call on in the future.
“We are going to file a joint application for an LCRA grant which could go towards the project,” said City Engineer Eric Belaj. “We hope to have this done by next fall, but a grant would help us hire a contractor and make it go much faster.
The second agreement, by way of a memorandum of agreement with the Marble Falls Independent School District, will allow for expansion of soccer, baseball, and softball fields currently known as the Rotary Fields. The relationship between the city and the district concerning land adjacent to the MFISD Administration Building, 1800 Colt Circle, had never been formalized.
The city will continue to provide routine maintenance there and, now, the city can elect to assist with improvements Marble Falls Youth Baseball/Softball Association (MFYBSA) and Granite Country Youth Soccer Association (GCYSA).
“This springs from things the district has been doing with Granite Shoals,” said City Manager Mike Hodge. “Granite Shoals is building new fields. In this instance we already have the Rotary Fields.”
Dedrick Thompson was appointed to place 7 on the Parks & Recreation Commission. He will fill the seat of Dave Rhodes, whose filing for a seat on the city council requires his resignation for the commission.
“My wife and I have four children, one who is autistic,” said Thompson. “We do tours of playgrounds in the area on Saturdays and one park we go to has a lot of sensory-based tools for handicapped kids. “We are growing (in Marble Falls) and we are going to have more families with special needs. I would like to see playgrounds, play places and even programs they can enjoy.”
