Flower Mound Officials Consider Options Regarding Land Released into ETJ With Vested Natural Gas Compressor Facility Planned

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Flower Mound Officials Consider Options Regarding Land Released into ETJ With Vested Natural Gas Compressor Facility Planned

Flower Mound officials were notified by the media on Sunday, August 22 that the Town of Bartonville released land from its Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) in which a natural gas compression and metering facility is proposed for construction. As a result of the Town of Bartonville's action, the property now lies within the ETJ of the Town of Flower Mound.

Based upon a permit application filed with Denton County by Mockingbird Pipeline, LP on August 12, 2010, it is the opinion of the Flower Mound Town Attorney that the gas compression facility proposed for the area in question is vested as a matter of state law. A vested right is the right of a developer or landowner to develop a project that complies only with ordinances and other development regulations enforceable on the date the project was applied for. When a developer or landowners has vested rights, a city may not require development of a project to comply with new development regulations adopted after an application for the project has been filed unless a specific exception is authorized by state law. A project with vested rights has secured entitlements to develop under known regulations.

Town officials are currently considering all options regarding this property and anticipate conducting a cost of service analysis for the area. Once a thorough review of the issues is conducted, all pertinent information and a list of potential options will be presented to the Flower Mound Town Council for determination regarding an appropriate course of action. Flower Mound reached a mutually-beneficial border agreement with Bartonville in 2007 that solidified both the boundaries and the extent of ETJ between the two communities. Flower Mound proceeded with annexation procedures to ensure a significant amount of Denton County property is now under municipal regulation and subject to land use rules and ordinances; however, the vote by the Bartonville Town Council left this property at risk for unfavorable development.

"By releasing this property, the Town of Bartonville has essentially paved the way for the further industrialization of southern Denton County and the development of more gas exploration, drilling, and compression facilities along both borders," said Michael Ryan, Flower Mound Director of Community Affairs. "We have anticipated potential issues with natural gas facilities being developed in our ETJ for a long time. As a result, we diligently moved forward over the past three years in systematically cleaning up our borders to ensure we have the ability to protect our residents."

Unfortunately, the failure or inability of Bartonville to annex the property in question and the subsequent release of the land created an island of unregulated and unzoned property between the two communities. As the Town of Flower Mound has no legal ability to regulate land uses or apply the current oil and gas ordinance within its ETJ, the assumption that release of the property would create a regulatory environment for the planned natural gas compression facility was both factually and legally inaccurate.

"If the Town of Bartonville is truly concerned about the health and safety of their residents, I would suggest that they consider taking steps to protect all of their ETJ from additional industrialization by gas exploration companies before another situation like this arises,"; said Ryan. "Unfortunately it's too late for us legally to regulate this particular project because release of the property occurred after the compression facility application was filed and consequently the facility is vested. The good news is that we would have the ability to apply our ordinances to the remaining undeveloped land, if it were within our town limits."

Review the natural gas compression facility permit application filed with Denton County for more information.

Posted 08/23/2010.