PA holds second required public hearing on annexation
Published 5:03 pm Tuesday, November 22, 2016
The city moved a little bit closer in possibly annexing some industrial properties in their Extra Territorial Jurisdiction.
The Port Arthur City Council held a required second public hearing on Monday morning. The city council held its first required public hearing at their regular meeting on Nov. 14.
The annexation of the areas are in Port Arthur’s Extra Territorial Jurisdiction and would pertain to:
- BASF Total Petrochemicals LLC
- Total Petrochemicals & Refining USA, Inc.
- BASF (old Sandoz)
- Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, LP
- Chevron USA
- Flint Hills Resources Port Arthur, LLC
- Oxbow Calcining, LLC
- Praxair, Inc. (located on the property of Valero Refinery)
- Praxair, Inc. (located on the property of the Motiva Refinery)
- Total Petrochemicals & Refining USA and Total Par, LLC
- Veolia ES Technical Solutions, LLC
Mayor Derrick Freeman said at the Nov. 14 meeting the possible annexation pertains to Industrial District Agreements between the city and industry as an exchange, such as providing Port Arthur residents with jobs, in return for them not being annexed. He added that if the industries are annexed they would be
required to pay 100 percent of taxes. This can be used to fix streets and other items in the city.
City Attorney Val Tizeno said the IDAs expire on Dec. 31, 2016. That would also be the effective date for annexation. The annexation process would start on Dec. 13.
Two required advertisements announcing the possible annexation were printed in The Port Arthur News and letters were sent out to all entities involved in the process.
City services to be provided to industry would include police protection, fire protection, solid waste services, water and wastewater services and streets.
Freeman said if the annexation goes through, the city would have no access to industries’ revenues until 2018.
The agreement, furthermore, would include any construction of capital improvements and the term would be for 10 years.
With the annexation, the size of the city would increase by 13 percent to 14 percent.
David Ball: 409-721-2427
