By Moses Leos III
An agreement involving Kyle and the Dahlstrom family property could be the first of many dominos the city hopes could fall in its quest to attain the Anthem subdivision.
By a 6-0 vote Tuesday, the Kyle City Council approved the agreement, which paves the way the Dahlstrom family to request its conservation easement to be released from Dripping Springs’ extraterritorial jurisdiction into Kyle’s ETJ.
Within the agreement, the Dahlstrom’s have the ability to request the northern part of the easement to be released from Kyle to Buda in five years. Kyle would keep the southern portion.
Kyle Assistant City Manager James Earp said the agreement is the first of “multiple steps” in a process they hope leads to Mountain City voluntarily releasing a portion of its ETJ, which holds Anthem.
Anthem, a Municipal Utility District located on the northwest side of Mountain City, is owned by Clark Wilson and is a customer of Houston-based private water firm Electro Purification (EP).
Earp said Wilson reached out to Kyle to provide utility service to Anthem to avoid partnering with EP. It led to a proposed interlocal agreement (ILA) between Kyle, Hays County and Mountain City to allow Kyle to take in Anthem. That agreement was met with staunch opposition from Mountain City.
But Earp said Kyle is now the “epicenter” of a potential new agreement, which could include Kyle, Mountain City, Dripping Springs and the Dahlstrom’s.
To provide service, Anthem would have to fall under the city’s jurisdiction. He said approaching from the north was the only way for Kyle to attempt to bring Anthem into its ETJ.
No city would act until another completed its action.
Should Dripping Springs release the conservation easement, Kyle would then look to Mountain City to voluntarily release its ETJ. But he said the city couldn’t get to that point without the previous steps.
“If Mountain City doesn’t agree it doesn’t leave us anwhere … It leaves Clark Wilson in an odd position to figure out,” he said.
