San Antonio City Council unanimously agreed Thursday to enter into a complex annexation agreement with Converse in an effort to bring municipal services to an unincorporated part of Northeast Bexar County that’s lacked them for decades.

Now it’s up to council members in Converse, a suburban city of about 22,000 people, to decide whether to annex this 12-square-mile, unincorporated area — a part of the county just north of Interstate 10 East that San Antonio officials once considered annexing, but scrapped because of the financial losses the city would incur.

The area, an island wedged between San Antonio and Converse, has historically suffered from a lack of basic services and investment, though it also includes many new neighborhoods and undeveloped land.

To sweeten the deal for Converse, San Antonio officials agreed to cede several commercial corridors to the suburban city and some additional areas, including the Northampton neighborhood currently in District 2. That’s about 3.6 square miles the city is giving up, eventually resulting in a loss of almost $4 million a year in various revenues for San Antonio.

As part of San Antonio’s vote Thursday, the city released the first 600 acres of the total area it eventually will relinquish to Converse.

Converse could triple in size

Through a series of annexations over the next 17 years, the suburban city of Converse east of San Antonio will triple in size. The annexations are part of an agreement with San Antonio, in which Converse will annex chronically underserved parts of unincorporated Bexar County. In yellow are the areas San Antonio is ceding to Converse. Areas in lighter blue are parts of the unincorporated county that Converse will annex. Play the video below to see the series of moves evolve. Be sure to move your cursor off the screen to see the years for each phase at the bottom of each slide.

Source: City of San Antonio

If Converse approves the agreement, the annexation plan would be phased in over 17 years. By its conclusion in 2033, Converse’s population would be more than 68,000 and the city would grow to more than 22 square miles, greater than triple its current size. The projected population increase doesn’t take into account the effects of any new residential development in these areas.

Converse will add 85 police officers and 57 firefighter and EMS positions over a 20-year period to accommodate the new growth, said San Antonio Deputy City Manager Peter Zanoni.

Converse Police Chief Fidel Villegas said his department is looking at working out of storefronts or adding substations as new areas are added into the city, with a goal of making sure officers can still make emergency calls in less than 10 minutes. At its current 7-square mile size, Converse police make emergency calls in about 3 minutes and non-emergency calls in 7 minutes.

The Converse vote is tentatively scheduled for March 21.

Converse Councilwoman Deborah James, who attended Thursday’s meeting, currently doesn’t support the proposed deal because she thinks officials in her city have rushed the agreement to a vote. She was one of three new people elected to council in November, and James believes they haven’t had enough time to study annexation’s implications. Public meetings to discuss the proposal, scheduled for this week and next, are being held too close to the council vote, she said.

“I’m not against expanding out,” James said. “What I’m against is it was done too fast.” She added that some residents in the unincorporated areas have expressed concerns their taxes will go up if they are annexed. James fears the city may struggle to provide services for the areas once they are absorbed.

Zanoni said Converse will gain a net of $8.6 million at the end of 20 years, if the annexations are executed.

The deal could prove a political win for San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor, following the city’s decision last summer to drop this area from its annexation plan. Taylor, who is running for re-election, said she wanted to find another way to address residents’ problems in the area.

“This agreement really does underscore the importance of developing regional solutions to the challenges that face us,” Taylor said. “We are all neighbors.”

District 8 Councilman Ron Nirenberg, one of Taylor’s challengers in the mayor’s race, and District 5 Shirley Gonzales have previously opposed San Antonio’s decision to annex other parts of the county. While both briefly referenced their concerns Thursday, they supported the Converse plan.

Several annexation bills pending in the state Legislature could render most of the San Antonio-Converse plan moot. Two annexation bills filed this session by state Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, and state Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, would mean residents in an area being considered for an annexation must vote yes or no before they could be absorbed into a city.

Should these bills pass, the new laws would go into effect in September. That means Converse would have to go to the voters in the unincorporated area every time they wanted to annex a new part of the county.

Zanoni, with San Antonio, said both cities have agreed to try to work together to implement the annexation plan even if the legislation passes.

vdavila@express-news.net