In an afternoon work session, the Lubbock City Council convened to hear a presentation on future annexation options for the city.
Growth and Annexation Advisory Committee Chairman Terry Holeman talked about what worked and was did not the last time large quantities of property were annexed, and offered recommendations to the council on how to proceed in the future.
“As a group, the growth and annexation committee decided it was kind of time to provide an update for city council,” Holeman told EverythingLubbock.com. “There are new city council members that may not have been aware of all the discussions from before.”
“We have a long-range plan for annexations, and this was just our step to A- sort of get the next round of annexations at least in front of them for discussion and B- to talk about better policies that we all can implement to streamline the process and make the public as aware as possible for these annexations,” Holeman added.
Council member Karen Gibson, who approved the April 2016 annexation, acknowledged the annexation process was “a nightmare.” Council member Jeff Griffith and Mayor Pro-Tem Latrelle Joy expressed their concerns, having both voted against the annexation last year.
“The committee looks at annexation from the city’s perspective,” Holeman said. “The City wants to stay ahead of growth and development. There is not regulation on land uses outside of the city limits, and so we want to ensure orderly growth, and we want to ensure that there’s good neighborhoods for folks to live in. and there’s good industrial parks, and there’s well-run businesses and those types of things.”
Below is a map that includes the areas that the committee has proposed to annex in the future.
One of the other items on the council’s agenda for Thursday evening was a first reading to update a traffic ordinance.
The item was recommended by Lubbock Police Chief Greg Stevens, according to the agenda. It aimed to create a provision that would make it “unlawful for any person to park within three feet of any public or private driveway.”
Stevens said that provision of Chapter 20 “Traffic” Article 20.04 was accidentally removed when the ordinance was updated.
Police said they were essentially attempting to reinstate the old ordinance, because it is currently not able to be enforced.
Council member Steve Massengale also presented a report from the Facilities Committee about public safety facilities and finances.
