By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

The Ellis County Commission wants to modify the extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), commonly referred to as the three-mile boundary, around the Hays city limits.

Ellis Co. Administrator Phillip Smith-Hanes and Hays City Manager Toby Dougherty met several times to discuss possible modifications to the boundary and then presented it to the Planning Commission July 18.

Ellis County adopted countywide zoning in 2006 after which the city and county commissions signed an ordinance/resolution defining the current ETJ.

As Dougherty pointed out to city commissioners during their work session last week, Ellis County can unilaterally make changes to the city of Hays’ ETJ. Within the ETJ, the city has control of zoning and platting.  The county has control of everything in unincorporated areas or not controlled by an ETJ. The city of Ellis also has a three-mile ETJ.

The proposed boundary change removes 19 square miles “yet still protects Hays and its potential growth areas for a long time to come,” Dougherty told the commission.

The east edge was left as is. “We don’t feel the east side warrants any change because this is a pretty active growth area for the city,” Dougherty said. “This boundary we feel should stay the same.”

The southwest side of the current boundary is state-owned property, either by Fort Hays State University or Kansas State University.

“When the commission discussed the Blue Sky Acres rezone request, one of the comments made was it’s highly unlikely we’re ever going to develop south and west of the state-owned property.  That’s why we changed the boundary, taking out of the ETJ the privately-owned land on the opposite side of that state-owned land.”

In the northwest there are flood plain issues, and to the far north is an industrial area and a feed lot.

“Highly unlikely we’re ever going to want to annex that into the city,” Dougherty said, “so your potential for growth is limited there.”

The active growth of the city, Dougherty predicted, is “probably going to be along the areas where infrastructure can be extended,” as he pointed to areas immediately north of the city limits.

“There’s absolutely nothing scientific about this,” he cautioned. “This is just us sitting around going through the map.”

And it can change.

“The reality is, this is not an immutable boundary. It can be changed, as evidenced by the fact it was adopted in 2006 and we’re talking about the possibility of it being modified now.”

“If Hays was to experience a residential growth spurt north of Walmart, north of 48th Street, you can always revisit the county and ask them to possibly modify it to accommodate that.”

The county is the entity that sets the three-mile boundary, Dougherty reminded city commissioners. “The city commission has a voice in the process but the decision is theirs to set the three-mile boundary.”

Commissioner Lance Jones said he saw “no issues at all with it.”

“I was just looking at a map that shows how much developable area is in the city of Hays already. With the city population at 21,000 right now and we expand out to that new blue line, you’re probably talking over 100,000 people and I don’t see us getting there any time soon,” Jones said.

Vice-Mayor Sean Musil agreed with Jones, but  also added, “In talking to developers, I think we’re going to be up north there a lot quicker than what we think.”

Dougherty agreed it was a possibility, while also noting nearby industrial and commercial areas that would have to be “leapfrogged” around.

“We have time to make course corrections if it does happen.  If we start seeing a lot of plats, a lot of movement in that area–significant investments in infrastructure–we have time to ask the county for a modification to allow for that, for any part of it.”

“I think this is completely reasonable,” concluded Commissioner James Meier.

Dougherty will return the commissioners’ comments to county administrator Smith-Hanes.

The proposed boundary change would not affect the current makeup of the Planning Commission.  Members consist of six city of Hays residents and three members who live within the three-mile extra territorial jurisdiction.

Commissioner Henry Schwaller was absent from the meeting.