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.

The petition submission begins the County’s formal review process of the proposal for the Court to consider establishing the district. Sequentially, the next steps would:

• Preparation of a report to determine whether an improvement should be made as proposed by petition or otherwise or whether the improvement should be made in combination with other improvements authorized under the statute.
• The Court may also require that a preliminary estimate of the cost of the improvement or combination of improvements be made.
• Development of a contractual agreement between the County and developer to ensure the proposed improvements are constructed in accordance with the financing mechanisms proposed in the petition and evaluated in the feasibility report.
• A public hearing is held for the Court to solicit input from the community and make the following findings:
  • the advisability of the improvement;
  • the nature of the improvement;
  • the estimated cost of the improvement;
  • the boundaries of the public improvement district;
  • the method of assessment; and
  • the apportionment of costs between the district and the municipality or county as a whole.