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By CINDY MALLETTE
Staff Writer

With Tyler's growth southward and Bullard's progress north, city leaders are looking at a slice of land that could hinder that movement for one of those towns.

The area in question lies between U.S. Highway 69 and Old Jacksonville Highway. Right now, that land doesn't belong to either city, but it probably will someday soon. It's called an extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), and it's a strip of land that either Tyler or Bullard will be able to annex as new growth springs up along that corridor.

An ETJ can be anywhere from a half-mile perimeter to a five-mile perimeter of unincorporated land where cities are able to regulate growth. They can set standards for new subdivisions within an ETJ, because in all likelihood, those subdivisions will find themselves annexed to the city at some future date, and those standards will make for easier transition of utilities and street maintenance.

Larry Morgan, Bullard's city manager, said he wants to make sure Bullard can safely maintain its rights over land to the north side of town as Tyler expands southward.

"We want to make sure we don't encroach on them and they don't encroach on us," he said.

Bullard has seen its own share of expansion throughout the past two decades. The 1990 census showed 1,010 people living in the city's limits, and that number has grown to more than 3,000 today.

In an October interview with the Tyler Paper, Morgan called Bullard's growth "phenomenal."

"We are in a growth corridor," he said. "People from Jacksonville are moving out here. People from Tyler are moving this direction out to Bullard city limits and within the city limits. We now have retail establishing itself."

As economic growth moves south, both towns want to make it clear just who has jurisdiction over that land.

Morgan sent maps of the disputed area showing Bullard's ETJ to Tyler city officials for review. He said Bullard's ETJ was configured in 2000, four years before Tyler re-configured its own ETJ.

In 2005, Tyler city leaders conducted a population analysis showing Tyler had grown to more than 100,000 people. That growth allowed Tyler to expand its ETJ from a three-mile radius to a five-mile radius.

"The procedure could be in question. I don't know that it is, but it could be," Morgan said.

Barbara Holly, the City of Tyler planning director, has been reviewing those maps with her team of engineers, and she said the results will put to rest any question over who has authority to regulate and annex that area.

"We're going to do this with a full measure of respect for our sister communities," she said.

There's no real question of overlap, she said, only a question of accuracy.

"There's no possibility of overlapping - you have to look at the dates and decide who was there first," she said.

In 1987, Texas legislators created ETJs to prevent "colonias," or unincorporated areas that are inhabited, but lack basic infrastructure. Holly said when a city establishes its ETJ, it can never be reduced by another town's encroachment.

"It's impossible to overlap," she said.

Six cities abut Tyler's ETJ, including Lindale, Chandler, Winona, New Chapel Hill, Whitehouse and Noonday (which is completely enveloped). If a town like Winona every wanted to expand southward, it would have to reach an agreement with Tyler in which Tyler would let go of some of its ETJ.

Winona Mayor Rusty Smith said his town hasn't had questions of encroachment from Tyler yet, but he doesn't rule out the possibility.

"Any time there's growth, there could be territorial disputes," he said.

Smith said city leaders are certainly considering expansion southward, into Tyler's ETJ.

"If we annex and want to expand our ETJ, we'd have to have a discussion with the City of Tyler, first," he said.

But annexation isn't cheap or easy. Aside from ETJ questions, a city has to create a three-year plan to provide utilities, fire protection and police to populated areas before annexation can take place.

"We would like to expand," Smith said. "Right now, we're looking at our infrastructure to see whether he have the ability to support that."

Morgan said he expects to hear from Ms. Holly by the end of the week over the Bullard/Tyler ETJ dispute. Regardless of whether Bullard's - or Tyler's - maps are wrong, he said he realizes that his town has probably stretched as much as it can northward.

"North, we've gone as far as we can, and we're comfortable with that," Morgan said.

If the dispute isn't resolved this week, he said it won't affect the sister cities' relationship.

"Hopefully, our planning together with the city of Tyler will make any transition easier," he said. "If there is a problem, we'll work together to figure it out."