The County has received a proposal from Southwest Land Development Services, Inc., regarding the establishment of a public improvement district for the Tierra del Este III, Phase VI land study in the East Montana area. Public improvement districts (PIDs) are authorized in Texas under Chapter 372 of the Texas Local Government Code. The statute allows a city or county to create a PID for the purposes of financing and maintaining certain improvements by means of levying an assessment and subsequent tax rate against property owners in a designated geographic area. A PID may finance landscaping, roadways, pedestrian malls, public art installations, libraries, mass transportation and other general infrastructure needs for undeveloped neighborhoods, including improvements of water, wastewater or drainage facilities or improvements. Also, improvements do not necessarily need to be located within the boundaries of the PID, rather, the properties in the PID must benefit from the improvements.
A PID proposed within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of a municipality may not be created if that municipality formally objects to the creation of the entity. This document will offer the perspective of procedures related to submission of documents to the county and not necessarily a municipality (also authorized by statute). It is important to note that PIDs are not separate political subdivision or separate legal entity, rather, a limited purpose financing tool for public improvements and supplemental services.
The purpose of this agenda item is to consider adoption of the El Paso County Public Improvement District Establishment Order, a policy tool that the Court and development community may use to reference when the County may consider establishing a PID, as well as providing a process to do so.