LEWISVILLE
The town is hoping to rally the troops in support of its request for extraterritorial jurisdiction.
In April, the town council decided to seek ETJ from Forsyth County Board of Commissioners. ETJ gives municipalities a right to plan and control growth outside their jurisdictions.
Under state law, a municipality between 10,000 and 20,000 residents can seek ETJ for up to two miles beyond its limits. Lewisville has a population of about 13,000 people.
The commissioners have not acted on Lewisville's ETJ request. While the town waits for the commissioners to act, some local officials and pro-ETJ residents want to rally support for ETJ and educate people who would be affected by it.
The town wants to collect 1,000 signatures from Lewisville residents and those who would be affected by ETJ on a petition to present to the commissioners. Last week, some council members and other residents set up a table across from Shallowford Square during Oklahoma! to collect signatures.
Ed Rachlin, a Runnymeade resident who is a member of the town's ETJ committee, talked with people as they wandered into the square to find a seat.
He persuaded Roxanne DeJames and Jayne Warbinton to add their signatures to the list.
"We like the small town," Warbinton said.
Tom Waldrep, also a member of the ETJ committee, has written a flier explaining ETJ to people who live in affected areas. The flier will soon be mailed to those homes.
In addition, a different flier will be mailed to people who live in town limits.
There will also be a series of public forums held in various locations around Lewisville. Those dates and times have not yet been set. A public forum held about six weeks ago at the Lewisville library drew about 80 people.
"I think we imparted some information to people at the library and that was the intention, and we also encountered some skepticism from people wondering, ‘What is the town up to?' Mistrust is what I sensed," Waldrep said. "Nobody said that, but that's what I got out of it."
The forums will be a chance for people to learn more about ETJ. The hope is that once they learn about it, they will see it as a positive move, Waldrep said.
Some common misconceptions are that ETJ will lead to annexation and mean higher property taxes, Waldrep said.
Another issue for opponents of ETJ is that they will not get to vote in Lewisville elections although Lewisville officials will make decisions that could affect them.
People affected by ETJ would not become town residents, but they would gain a representative on the town's planning board.
"We want to try to allay their fears and hope they see that there is nothing but a benefit to be gained, and out of that, we hope that they will support ETJ," Waldrep said.
To keep the issue on the minds of the commissioners, officials plan to send them a packet of information about ETJ as well as occasional e-mails.
Information about ETJ and a map of the areas that will be affected have been posted on the town's Web site, www.lewisvillenc.net.
■ Lisa O'Donnell can be reached at 727-7420 or at lo'donnell@wsjournal.com.
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