The Ellis County Commissioners’ Court Tuesday afternoon voted unanimously to approve its half of a proposed agreement with the City of Midlothian regarding subdivision approvals within the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction.
The approval is subject to legal review and depends on approval by the Midlothian City Council.
County development director Alberto Mares told the court that an agreement has been in place between Ellis County and Midlothian since 2008 governing planning. That pact was put into place as a result of legislative action at the time.
However, Mares said, annexation laws have since changed where cities can no longer unilaterally annex into their ETJ, and Mares said the city has reached out to the county to give the county exclusive platting authority within its ETJ.
The Midlothian City Council is expected to vote on the matter during its Oct. 28 regular semimonthly meeting, Mares said. In the meantime, he added, a couple of language matters need to be ironed out, in particular a termination clause and the design of sewage plants.
“We feel like we’re almost there,” Mares said. “We want to go ahead and get it approved …. That way, it’ll go before (Midlothian’s) council on Oct. 28 with a possible effective date of Nov. 1.”
Responding to a question from Precinct 2 Commissioner Lane Grayson on precedents, Mares said the county has ETJ agreements in place with the cities of Ennis, Ovilla, Grand Prairie and Venus, but no amended agreements yet with Waxahachie, Red Oak and Ferris.
“I’m hoping that this will be the domino that will help other cities revise their interlocals,” Mares said. “I know Waxahachie is probably the one that works the best out of all the joint reviews that we have right now. We maybe get half of those reviews a year.”
County Judge John Wray noted that since the state has changed cities’ authority over their ETJs, cities are becoming more accepting of ceding that authority to the county.
“That absolutely was the whole idea,” chimed in Precinct 3 Commissioner Louis Ponder, who should know: He was the leader of a campaign in 2018 that succeeded in stopping forced annexation in Ellis County and eventually led to a statewide ban enacted by the Texas Legislature.
All members of the Commissioners’ Court were present.
