RSS
|
Mobile
|
Daily Emails
|
We Twitter
| Make us your home page
When Karen Hall's property was annexed by the city of Bryan in 1999, she promised her neighbors that she would pursue every legal option to have the decision reversed.
In 2007, it seemed the battle was over when the Texas Supreme Court ruled against her.
But the 66-year-old retiree's fight is still on.
She filed a petition last week in Brazos County's 272nd District Court seeking to have about 105 acres off Texas 21 East removed from the city limits.
Hall said she made the move as a last resort after every other legal avenue had been exhausted. Despite setbacks over the 11-year battle, she's optimistic about her chances.
She's spent about $20,000 and countless hours fighting the city but said she had no regrets.
"This is the way I was raised," she said, to "stand up to something that is this grossly wrong. If you have the ability, you need to stand up. I would do it again knowing what I know now."
Her latest legal maneuver surfaced after the city's 10-year contract with the annexed residents expired in July, Hall said. The contract was the city's promise to provide municipal services to residents, she said. Ten years later, the services haven't been provided, and the city has breached the contract, she said.
"When the service plan was valid, the court had already ruled that as an individual, I could not hold the city accountable to state law," Hall said. "Now that the service plan is no longer valid, I can now take them back in, but I must charge them with failing to perform in good faith."
In addition to being removed from the city limits, Hall is asking the city to pay her legal fees and requesting a refund of property taxes and fees collected from all the landowners in the area.
"I'm asking the court to look at my side," she said.
Bryan Deputy City Manager Joey Dunn referred questions about Hall's lawsuit to City Attorney Janis Hampton.
"At this point, I've received a copy of the petition, but we have not been served," Hampton said Thursday, declining to comment further.
Hall said the city has 30 days from the day it receives the petition to respond. A date would then be set for a hearing.
Missed connections
Hall joined the city's property tax roll in 1999 when Bryan annexed 6,000 acres, including a mile-long strip of land on both sides of Texas 21 from what was then the city limits to Coulter Field. She argued then that the city had failed to meet its "moral obligation" to provide sewer extension and other services to the annexed properties along Texas 21.
City officials maintain that residents who are annexed are not entitled to free utility connections and that their property taxes pay for services such as police and fire protection, but not utility extensions.
Hall's latest petition states the city has failed to provide sewer service, fire suppression, water service and police protection, or provide a level of service comparable to similar areas in other parts of the city.
"Bryan failed miserably to perform in good faith," Hall wrote in the petition.
Hall said part of the dispute centers around the city's definition of what a service is.
"They say they are providing us with fire. I say they're not," she said. Even if fire trucks came, she said, there are no fire hydrants for firefighters to use and fire crews would have to rely on a volunteer precinct to truck in water.
When the city decided to annex the land, officials said, it was necessary to control the city's development and to allow improvements to the city's "gateway" entrances. Ten years later, the area looks much the same, and Hall said she doesn't think the city has any plans for capital improvements.
"The city keeps saying it's not their responsibility, and I'm saying, 'Yes it is,'" she said.
Failed petition
Last month, Hall asked the City Council to reconsider its decision. She presented a petition with signatures from 27 of the 35 qualified voters in the area seeking to have the area removed from the city.
The council rejected her request, with council members Mike Southerland and Al Saenz dissenting. Council member Jason Bienski was not at the meeting.
None of the current council members was in office when the issue surfaced in 1999, and Hall said she thought the new members would recognize the errors of the previous council.
Hall said she expected the request to be her final push on the matter, but after it was denied someone pointed out that the city's annexation contract had expired and encouraged her to pursue it further.
Southerland applauded Hall's efforts last week, saying the residents should be provided full city services.
"I think those people out there have been pretty diligent, and this is another option they have and should pursue," he said.
But Mayor Mark Conlee said developers are responsible for installing sewer and water lines, with the cost to the resident passed on through the price of the home. Property taxes don't fund utility connections, he said.
If Hall's request were to be approved, residents throughout the city could ask to be unincorporated, possibly bankrupting the city or making it nonexistent, Conlee said.
City officials said they have not kept track of how much time and money the legal challenge has cost.
The city will collect about $34,000 in property taxes this year from the 43 parcels in the contested area, and the total refund if Hall's challenge succeeds would be about $200,000, she said.
Hall said the fight has been harder than she imagined, but she's learned a lot about herself.
"I would have never believed I was capable of doing this," Hall said.
Still, she said, she's ready for it to be over.
"I want my life back badly," she said.
