Bartonville’s gift to Flower Mound

The Town of Bartonville gifted 167 acres to Flower Mound.

Press Release

Sunday, August 22, 2010, the Town Council of the Town of Bartonville met in special called meeting and unanimously adopted Ordinance 497-10, releasing approximately 167 acres of land located in Bartonville’s Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ).

“Closing our borders has been a topic of conversation at the Town Hall as far back as early June of this year,” said Town Administrator Debbie Millican. She went on to say, “Future incompatible building and development in our extraterritorial jurisdiction has been and remains a source of concern for our town council and citizens.”

The Town of Flower Mound’s recent moratorium on all new applications for centralized gas compression stations has encouraged gas production companies to seek locations outside of Flower Mound’s jurisdiction and forced activity in Bartonville’s ETJ. Rumors and speculation have been ramped regarding a proposed centralized compressions station to be located in Bartonville’s ETJ between Flower Mound’s Tour 18 Golf/Residential Development and Porter Road, just south of Bartonville’s most southern Town Limits. When discovered that the land speculation and gas production activity was imminent, Mayor Robertson decided that action had to be taken quickly. He instructed staff to expedite the evaluation and prospect of consolidating territory into Bartonville or relinquishing ETJ in this area,

As a matter of law, released ETJ automatically goes into the closest contiguous city, in this case Flower Mound. The Town of Bartonville is a General Law City with limited authority and almost non-existent authority in the ETJ. Flower Mound is a Home Rule City and has the authority to regulate all matters relating to public safety within their ETJ.

The Bartonville Town Council is charged with the responsibility of protecting its citizens and our bordering neighbors to the extent that we are able, even if it means turning over land to a larger town. “The Town will examine and expedite future border consolidations or relinquishment in order to protect against development which burden our resources and place unfavorable development which may threaten our quality of life,” said Robertson.

Does the highlighted sentence sound slightly accusatory to you? What exactly, kept Bartonville from enacting a temporary moratorium of it’s own? Maybe instead of trying to find someone to arrest local hero Runner Susan for her trespass in the interest of protecting the public, the mayor should have considered a temporary moratorium until drilling ordinances were updated to protect Bartonville citizens. Runner Susan risked life and limb and followed a noxious chemical odor to uncover “Shanty Town, “ a hidden threat to her community. Since then, the mayor has been exceedingly rude to RS and her husband and I have the tapes to prove it!

Rumors floating around this morning indicated that Flower Mound was none too happy about this gift and that they may reject it. I guess we’ll know soon enough.

As I rode through the Bartonville countryside yesterday, I was struck by two things:

1. Bartonville is an incredibly beautiful piece of paradise.
2. There are some GIGANTIC, ENORMOUS, ENERGY HOG homes in Bartonville.

Once again, the best way to make sure you don’t have a drilling rig in your backyard is to cut WAY down on your energy consumption. Yes, I know that not much of the Barnett Shale gas that is produced here is actually used in this area but–PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE–your electricity is not magic, it comes from someplace and someone pays a price for the energy you use. In fact, your energy likely comes from Navarro County and you might remember that they have a very high number of Make A Wish children living within a few square miles.

Things could get ugly here. I see the potential for towns, communities and neighborhoods to turn against each other. The weakest always loses in that battle.

A simple answer for all you panic-stricken Barnett Shale residents