District 1 Brownsville City Commissioner Nurith Galonsky Pizana (from left), Commissioner At-Large “A” John Cowen Jr., Mayor Trey Mendez and Commissioner At-Large “B” Rose Gowen during last Tuesday’s meeting in the Brownsville Public Library Main Branch meeting room. The Brownsville City Commission held a public hearing to annex Southmost Boulevard to Dakota Avenue into the city limits, as part of the El Jardin Re-Subdivision. Luis Martinez Santillano/The Rider Photo
The Brownsville City Commission voted last Tuesday to approve the annexation of Southmost Boulevard to Dakota Avenue into the city limits, otherwise known as the El Jardin Re-Subdivision.
“Basically in Texas, cities are no longer able to annex or add to the city limits,” said City Manager Noel Bernal after the meeting. “So, it’s going to be done through developers to add their subdivisions into the city or otherwise they stay in the county.”
During the meeting, District 3 Commissioner Roy De los Santos motioned to approve the annexation and Commissioner At-Large “B” Rose Gowen seconded the approval.
The items for re-subdivision were under the public hearings portion of the agenda. During the reading, there were no public comments on the items.
However, District 2 Commissioner Jessica Tetreau did raise concerns during the meeting, saying she would like the sidewalk areas to be ample for children to play.
“I’m very excited about this because right now there’s a very big housing shortage, but I just hope that the city would be very adamant to make sure that there’s sidewalks with good walking space and good walkability in those neighborhoods,” Tetreau said.
Martin Vega, senior planner for Planning and Redevelopment Services for the city, said the re-subdivision will create 110 homes out of Lot 3 and 6 in the county and 244 homes from Southmost Boulevard to Dakota Avenue.
This was the first reading of the re-subdivision items to the commision. The item will be presented to the commission again on Dec. 7.
The following services will be provided to residents within 90 days of the annexation into the city, according to agenda items: police protection, fire protection and emergency medical services, public water and sewer services, maintenance of roads, streets, parks, playgrounds, swimming pools and other public facilities.
