Harlingen, La Feria duel over land
Both cities believe they have the right to annex 145 acres
LA FERIA — For months, La Feria and Harlingen leaders have worked to resolve a land dispute along White Ranch Road.
“It’s two different interpretations,” La Feria City Manager Sonny Philip said Wednesday.
Today, city commissioners here will decide whether they’ll annex land that Harlingen officials argue lies within Harlingen’s extraterritorial jurisdiction.
At City Hall, officials believe they have the authority to annex a 145-acre swath that straddles Expressway 83 to the city limit line.
“That is the understanding of the city of La Feria,” Philip said. “The city of La Feria analyzed the information carefully.”
But Harlingen officials argue the land lies within Harlingen’s ETJ, City Manager Craig Lonon said.
“If it’s in our ETJ, we have not given our permission (to annex), because they believe it’s in their ETJ so they believe they have the permission,” Lonon said.
Lonon said Harlingen officials could take legal action against La Feria if it annexes the land.
“We can pursue it and I don’t think we want that and I don’t think they want that,” Lonon said. “We don’t want to fight with our neighbor.”
Last week, Harlingen Mayor Chris Boswell said he met with Philip and La Feria Mayor Pro Tem Lori Weaver.
“We presented all the information we had to them and we are still exchanging information,” Philip said. “The commissioners will be able to make a decision based on the overall plan the city had from the beginning and also based on the information the city received from Harlingen.”
Last month, La Feria officials pushed back plans to annex the proposed site to continue negotiations with Harlingen leaders.
“We were trying to sort out some facts to try to reach an agreement,” Boswell said.
La Feria’s ETJ lines extend as far as a half-mile east of White Ranch Road, into Harlingen’s ETJ, Philip said in an earlier interview.
As part of a “gentlemen’s agreement” between the two cities, La Feria provides water to residents west of White Ranch Road, while Harlingen serves residents east of the boundary, Philip said.
La Feria plans to annex a total of 250 acres to pave the way for a retail corridor along Expressway 83 that’s projected to stretch from Mercedes’ new Rio Grande Valley Premium Outlets mall to Harlingen.
In 2002, the city of Mercedes filed a lawsuit against La Feria after it claimed La Feria annexed within its ETJ.
The cities settled the dispute out of court, the cities’ officials said.
The agreement gave each city a quarter-mile of land along the expressway, they said.
