Areas eager to join Austin proper

AUSTIN (KXAN) - In East Travis County, several neighboring communities are desperate for one of two things to happen: be annexed by the City of Austin or incorporate as its own separate city.

Those neighborhoods include Austin's Colony, Forest Bluff, Kennedy Ridge Estates and other communities along FM 969 near Webberville, nine miles east of Austin.

Some 7,000 residents live in this growing area. Right now they face rapidly rising water rates, the need for rules on land use and concerns over emergency response time, as well as health and human safety issues.

"Right now it's in limbo," said resident David Trevino, who supports annexation. "There's no one in control, no direction, no significant oversight. You need somebody to come in and do some kind of Sunset Valley, something that has control. Right now there's no control in this area. Without some kind of oversight, there's no telling what's going to happen out here."

But the City of Austin said it has no plans ot annex that area, at least in the near future. That works fine for some residents, who would prefer to become a home rule city and not part of Austin.

"Annexation wouldn't give us as much power as being a separate city," said Richard Franklin III, who favors incorporation. " We could create our own economic development zone. If we become annexed then we'd still have to go to the city and ask them to do things for us. As our own city we'd be able to do it ourselves."

On Saturday afternoon, residents were signing petitions to incorporate as the City of Hornsby Bend. Hornsby Bend was a settlement in that area going back to the 1830s. That way they say they could control their own destiny and perhaps even develop their own private water company. Residents say one way or another, something's got to happen.

Incorporation will requiring petitioning Travis County for an election.