one small step...

The special meeting tonight was an important step towards the possibility of actually doing due diligence about the annexation issues. The posible tax revenues of each potential parcel of annexable land were discussed in some detail, although they were not complete or completely current. What was NOT discussed is perhaps JUST as important as what was discussed- there was little discussion of possible mitigation fees and NO talk of potential pollution problems or zoning concerns. The numbers required for the policing of area 9 seemed to be low. Somehow VG has become the entity that is setting the tone and making demands. For example, VG seems to believe that if we get area 9 they should get 6 plum parcels of property on the North side of 36 st where Milam dairy meets 72nd ave. They seem to think that is a fair trade. If that IS a fair trade then we should cede the rights to area 9 to them and just take the 6 parcels for MS. We can, and will, support their rights to annex area 9 in exchange for those 6 parcels! Fair enough! That would equal it out some, because at this point VG is wanting some 55 million dollars in taxable revenues more than MS. Garcia has taken the " a-little-of-the-pie-is better-than-NO pie", "lets be grateful for any little crumb thrown our way" approach. It is right to take the current tax value of all the land because it allows the comparison of apples-to-apples, for the most part. Youngs was the best informed of the lot and offerred some helpful summaries of these complicated proceedings. They agreed to look further into this annexation process. After all is said and done, its a productive first step in this process of finally, perhaps, doing real, rational, concrete due diligence. The revenue issues are relatively straightforward. It is the other issues that further complicate the process.