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Yours, mine and ours: Carrollton and Coppell pull a switcheroo over 25 acres
By Marthe Stinton, mstinton@starlocalnews.com
The city of Carrollton is in the giving spirit and Coppell is taking full advantage of the city's generous mood. Last month, a resolution was presented to Carrollton asking that a 25-acre tract of land be disannexed by the city of Carrollton, allowing Coppell to annex the tract to be used for a subdivision.
"It was useless for Carrollton because not only is it in the floodway, there is also not access to it from Carrollton," said Leonard Martin, city manager for the city of Carrollton. "We could not effectively provide service to it. We received negligible tax from the land."
Under the agreement, when the parcel is 50 percent developed, Coppell will share the taxes with Carrollton for the next 10 years.
The tract is located in west Carrollton, just north of Sandy Lake Road. The property owner, Terry Homes, who is doing business as Denton Creek Land Company, proposes to build a subdivision of nearly 90 single-family homes, 34 of which would be located in Carrollton if the city did not disannex the land. Estimated home values for the subdivision range between $350,000 and $450,000.
"We just looked at it and tried to decide if it made sense for us to contemplate what the developer was asking," said Clay Phillips, Coppell city manager. "We think it does. It will allow a larger single-family home development than what would have otherwise been the case. Over a long period of time we will have some additional residents and tax value that we wouldn't have had. It made sense to everyone."
The developer cannot bring the requested development before the city until the annexation is complete.
"We couldn't approve a development to a portion of land that what would have otherwise been outside our city," Phillips said. "There are still some more legal things and approval by our council that have to happen. Carrollton approved the disannexation last night, which means we are now free to move forward with out annexation."
The city of Carrollton had no qualms letting the land go, given that vehicular access could only be accessed via Sandy Lake Road in Coppell. The closest Carrollton water main is nearly one mile away and the closest sewer main is about a mile and a half away, which would cost the city $1.2 million to connect the two mains and extending the sewer main would also require the construction of a lift station and additional costs to the city.
Emergency services would also see a decrease in response time. According to a city document, Carrollton's emergency service response times to the lots would be unacceptable, while Coppell's fire stations are much closer to the property than any other Carrollton station.
Other city services like solid waste collection and animal services would also be better served from Coppell, according to a city document.
At a June 19 council meeting, the Carrollton city staff was directed to find information on additional tracts in Coppell. For this trade-off to occur, the two cities would have to be contiguous, which they are not along most of the Trinity River due to Dallas' city limit expansions.
Martin said the trade-off did not occur because it didn't make sense.
"It was all in the flood plain or not developable for other reasons, like being school land," he said.
Phillips said the Coppell City Council will vote to approve to annex the property.
"Our city attorney is working on those documents and I assume it will happen in one of the two August [city council] meetings," he said. "There have to be some filings done with the state and the county, but in essence the land, in terms of which municipality it resides will be Coppell. Once that is all finalized the developer can put his application in and we can contemplate the development of the property because it will now be in Coppell."
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