City annexes land near Interstate 20

Published 3:15 am Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Planners for the city of Tyler have voted to annex a parcel near Interstate 20 and U.S. Highway 69.

The Planning and Zoning Commission voted at a regular meeting on Tuesday to annex the 11.6-acre parcel near Lindale for commercial use.

“This will be the first time that the city limits will touch the interstate,” Kyle Kingma, the planning manager for the city, told the commission.

Kingma said the annexation requires the city to redraw its boundaries, amend a land-use guide and create a new boundary for City Council District 3, which also includes several neighborhoods near U.S. 69 North and west northwest Loop 323.

The property will be zoned as a general commercial district, which is the same zoning designation as properties to the south of it, Kingma said. The designation allows automobile garages, car dealers, hotels, restaurants, warehouses, offices and various types of retail.

The annexation will allow the property to be connected to the city’s sewer system, which already runs up U.S. 69 North. The city’s police and fire departments also will serve the area, according to the city.

Bringing the city’s boundary to I-20 will allow Tyler to be designated a “control city” by the Texas Department of Transportation, according to the city. This will allow Tyler’s name to be on more wayfinding signs that show how many miles need to be traveled to get to the next major city.

Heather Nick, the managing director of planning and economic development for the city, said there is a sign on I-20 when leaving the Dallas-Fort Worth area that lists the distance to Longview and Shreveport, Louisiana, but not Tyler.

“Tyler’s not on that sign,” Nick said. “We should be on that sign.”

Mark Priestner of the company Planning Concepts, who is representing owner Scott Thorne, said the owner is looking at planning for development on the parcel as a larger project to develop the entire southeast corner of I-20 and U.S. 69.

He said the project has been a long time coming, and pointed to the water infrastructure the city of Tyler extended on U.S. 69.

“We’ve been actually working on this for a while,” Priestner said. “When the city did all the infrastructure expansion to the north, this is kind of where we were trying to get to.”

The Planning and Zoning Commission’s vote serves as a recommendation to the Tyler City Council, which will have final say on the issue.