Unlike the D-FW and Houston areas of Texas, San Antonio does not seem to have nearly as many suburbs. Both of the former metro areas have massive suburban sprawls within the county of the city and in the neighboring counties. However, San Antonio itself is most of Bexar County's population, and the counties around it are pretty small in population. Dallas-Fort Worth has Collin and Denton counties, and Houston has Montgomery, Fort Bend, and Brazoria counties. The biggest county surrounding Bexar is Guadalupe (at 131K). Any idea why this is?
Cities in Texas have powerful annexation rights. They can simply pass an ordinance and annex territory. In addition, cities have what is known as extra territorial jurisdiction (ETJ) which extends outside their city limits. The distance they extend outside the city limits depends on their population. For the city of Houston, it extends 5 miles outside the city limits. Among the restrictions of the ETJ are that it prevents annexation by other cities or formation of other cities. Cities may also include property they own in their ETJ, and property owners may voluntarily place their land in the ETJ. Cities annexed long narrow strips of land called
fence lines that had the effect of extend the ETJ far outside the city.
Houston Annexation History (PDF)City of Houston ETJ (PDF)Over time there has been pushback. Fenceline annexations are no longer legal. In addition, cities are required to provide municipal services within a few years of annexation. Residential property generally is revenue negative, in that cost of services is greater than the property tax revenue. The reverse is true for commercial and industrial property since they have greater property value and sales tax revenue. Houston may also be restricted by the VRA since more suburban areas are whiter.
After Houston annexed Kingwood, there were additional restrictions placed on annexation. Cities must have an annexation plan for the next few years. By announcing in advance, it provides an opportunity for residents to organize legal resistance.
Cities may go outside the plan with the agreement of the land owner. And there are what are referred to as limited purpose annexation, where much of the tax revenue from an annexed area goes back into infrastructure for the immediate area.
Dallas was better farming territory, than Houston, and there were a number of small farming towns in Dallas County. As the population boomed post-WWII in many cases they were able to annex enough territory to block Dallas. This includes cities such as Mesquite, Garland, and Irving. Dallas did surround the Park Cities, and did manage to annex a small area in Collin County, before being cut off by cities like Farmers Branch, Plano, Richardson, and Plano.
