THE STATE OF TEXAS – TOWN OF ANDERSON – BE IT REMEMBERED, that on this the 7th day of October 2021, at 7:00 p.m., there was begun and holden a Public Hearing of the Town of Anderson, Grimes County, Texas.
1. Call to order: 7:01 p.m.
a. Roll call: Karen McDuffie, Kason Menges, Daryl Alford, Harold Minor, Carnell Carrell, Bessie White, and Pam Johnson were present.
Visitors present were Gloria Hitchcock, Michael Diehl, James Noonan, Marc Benton, Sherri Benton, Cameron Cunneen, Nancy Perry, Jeannie Burns, Tanya Emanuel, Terry Licce, Harry Walker, Jason Howell, Will Borski, Charles Borski, Miriah Caskey, Clifton Caskey, Joe Salvato, Scott Beene, Lucy Ybarra, William Schaier, Darrell Dietrich, Dan Smith
b. Quorum established.
2. Public hearing on the petition to voluntary annex property located outside the Town’s limits, but with the the Town’s extraterritorial jurisdiction:
• Miriah Caskey gave overview of plans for the property, to include selling to developer to potentially build 64 homes.
• Joe Salvato with Cervantez Construction plans to build 64 homes within the 20 acre plot of land, with each having 65’ frontage. There will be no cost to the city in this construction.
• Gloria Hitchcock – What are the benefits to the city? – Answer: once homes are built & sold, city will receive property taxes and sewer charges.
• Harry Walker – spoke on the infrastructure of the development, if it were to stay in the county, county subdivisions require 1 acre for each septic system
• Harold Minor – can the current sewer handle the growth? Answer: yes, per previous meetings with sewer operators, it would actually be beneficial to current sewer with increased flow.
• Michael Diehl – is 64 the cap? I moved here for rural property, not subdivisions.
• Nancy Perry – People are asking for property in this area, growth is coming whether we want it or not
• Sarah Nash – I’m sending you a piece to read for me at tonite’s meeting. Something’s come up and I won’t be able to attend. But I do have strong feelings and I hope you’ll read this for me. Dear Neighbors in Anderson: Many, probably most, of us have lived here for a long time, and so did our parents, grandparents, great grandparents and on. Most of you know I live on Main St in the house my great grandfather helped his son, my grandfather, build. And so considering any kind of change is VERY hard. Very hard. With tonight’s subject of whether to annex or not to help a subdivision come into being here, that’s a big change. But here’s the thing: due to Anderson being discovered as a great place to live, we will see this problem again. The inclusion of citizens able to purchase $300,000 homes can be extremely good for our town. New people bring new ideas, and they can still be voted down!!! I’m really encouraging y’all to accept the idea of annexing this subdivision because a controlled growth is far better for us than “here a group, there a group, everywhere a group”!!! We can make the rules they must abide by at this point if we’re wise enough to include them in our town. Thank y’all for accepting our mayor reading this for me since I couldn’t come tonight. Sincerely, Sarah Nash
• Marc Benton – we moved here about 1 ½ years ago from northern VA. We chose this place for a reason, the charm, architecture, people. We watched our home in VA do exactly what is taking place here, growth that swallowed town and big cities took over. Growth is coming, but it doesn’t have to take over Anderson. My main point, it’s going to bring in 64 new homes that will change our town and it will no longer be small town Anderson.
• Gloria Hitchcock – the homes that are going in on Hwy 30, what is the comparison to what is proposed to be built in Anderson.
• Michael Diehl – I am not totally against annexation, but I am concerned about the quality of life with so many homes in such a small space. If they’re not using the 15 acres for housing development at the moment, that would be much better from my standpoint
• Kasey Baker – my kids go to school in Anderson & are thriving. Growth is coming & I would rather it be someone local that is developing this vs outsiders coming in to develop this area.
• Dan Smith – Moved here for peace and quiet & the country feel. This happened to me in the last home I had. Local roads in current condition cannot handle the traffic that will go with additional homes.
• Nancy Perry – similar subdivisions going up in Navasota have approximately 300 homes & roads have not seen impacts on the roads
• Karen McDuffie –discussions are being made to possibly make Anderson a historical district
• Darrell Dietrich – people are going to be moving in that are from other areas & will change the structure of the Council as well.
• Will Borski – it’s going to change the school district, the town, the council, we don’t want our town to be swallowed
• Miriah Caskey – people want to come here for the small town, they want the small town life
• Bessie White – citizen concern – what will this do to current taxes?
• Jeff Robertson – traffic analysis will be done
• Charles Borski – we don’t have to take more people into the city
• Gloria Hitchcock – With the increase in tax income, who is going to maintain streets, are you going to have to hire people? – We have interlocal agreement with county
• Terry Licce – what about fire support for all the new houses?
• Sherry Noonan – we moved here for country life, I don’t want it
• Dan Smith – need restrictions in place, can we put something in place to control future growth
• Many questions were brought up and the council needs to look at updating and adding ordinances.
3. Adjourn: Public Hearing adjourned at 8:38 p.m.
Signed
Karen McDuffie, Mayor
Kason Menges, Mayor Pro-Tem