Furst Ranch Update
Neighbors,
Please join us, via zoom* on Tuesday, August 18th, at 7:00 p.m. at our council meeting to hear a discussion/update on the Furst Ranch (*our council room has a limited seating capacity of 16 for social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19 – meeting login details are at the end of this message.)
Background:
- Furst Ranch encompasses approximately 2,067 acres of land and surrounds all four corners of the intersection of US 377 and Cross Timbers Road (FM 1171). The area that is being planned includes Mixed Use of 1,867 acres to the east of US 377 and Campus Industrial of 200 acres to the west of US 377. This property is primarily located in Flower Mound with about 450 acres in the ETJ (extraterritorial jurisdiction) of Bartonville and 31 acres in the ETJ of Argyle. An ETJ is an “unincorporated area that is contiguous to the corporate boundaries” of a city/town, e.g. taxes are not paid to the municipality in the ETJ. The developer would like to consolidate all the property into one municipality, in this case Flower Mound (similar to what we did several years ago with the Tour 18 development) and contacted the town last month to explore details and engage with other municipalities.
- An ETJ (extraterritorial jurisdiction):
- Can only be annexed into the town with the permission of the property owners
- Can be developed without consultation with the town
- Can’t be annexed by another municipality without the permission of the town
- Flower Mound:
- Most of the Furst Ranch is in Flower Mound
- The owners of Furst Ranch want Bartonville’s and Argyle’s ETJ to be annexed by Flower Mound so they are only working with one municipality.
- Flower Mound wants to annex the property.
Town Focus:
- Protect the interests of the contiguous property owners. Note: There are 8 property owners: 2 have financial interests in Furst Ranch and 3 are in ETJ that will remain with Bartonville.
- Protect the traffic density in Bartonville. There are no plans to connect Bartonville roads to any outside development. Note: Due to high-density developments in Argyle, we are and will continue to see increased traffic. We continue to monitor traffic with our yearly traffic studies/traffic counts, and remain in contact with our county commissioner on ways to handle any impact.
- Placement of a future electrical substation who’s need will be exacerbated by Furst Ranch. The need for a substation was discussed a few years ago. The power company still owns property in the town (along the power lines) that they can use for the substation. When the substation came up earlier, I met with CoServ. We got an "agreement" to not add new transmission line locations but they may put up new poles at the current locations. We also talked about optional sites for the substation but no commitments were made before the discussions stopped. We would like the substation to be outside Bartonville or at an alternate, less visible location, than the current site off Gibbons.
- Financial interest of the town.
These are exploratory discussions. As details evolve, they will be communicated. If you have questions, please contact me or the council. We are happy to discuss this or any other topic.
Bill Scherer, Mayor
Town Council Meeting, 08/18/2020, 7:00 PM
TO Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84808945332?pwd=dTBnczltdnZJVDhpL2M5cGdES2NZQT09
Meeting ID: 848 0894 5332; Passcode: 652776