Opinion ID: 1769519
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: McGregor's Annexation Valid Under Article 965

Text: When McGregor purchased its municipal airport site, Article 965 [1] was in force, and that article recognized the special nature of lands owned by a municipality. That statute authorized McGregor's annexation of lands by ordinance but had the proviso, provided that this provision shall apply only to those cities where the additional territory so added is owned by such municipalities. The special nature of municipally owned tracts of land such as McGregor's airport was again recognized and respected by Article 970a, the Municipal Annexation Act. Section 3 of that act excluded from a city's extraterritorial jurisdiction the unincorporated area which was a part of another city. In order to promote and protect the general health, safety, and welfare of persons residing within and adjacent to the cities of this State, the Legislature of the State of Texas declares it to be the policy of the State of Texas that the unincorporated area, not a part of any other city, which is contiguous to the corporate limits of any city, to the extent described herein, shall comprise and be known as the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the various population classes of cities in the State and shall be as follows. . .. (Emphasis added.) Section 3 then lists five brackets of cities and states the distance over which each has an extraterritorial jurisdiction. In each listing there is the phrase not a part of any other city. Section 3, in short, declares the area which constitutes the extraterritorial area of cities, but it excludes from the extraterritorial area that property which is a part of some other city. The airport owned by McGregor was never a part of Waco's extraterritorial lands under the Municipal Annexation Act.