Medina County Commissioner’s Court News

Public hearing in December on Hwy 132 TIRZ project

By Anton Riecher
Medina County commissioners took preliminary steps on Nov. 18 to call a public hearing on the creation of a tax increment reinvestment zone (TIRZ) to facilitate development of “Project Cinco,” a $500 million data center to be located between Natalia and Lytle.
“If everything goes right it will be held during the last commissioners’ court meeting in December,” County Judge Keith Lutz said. “We will need to have a proposed agreement.”
The last scheduled commissioners’ court meeting for 2024 is Dec. 30.
A representative for county development boosters, Go Medina, informed the Natalia city council in April about “Project Cinco,” a 440-acre digital data center proposed to be built on Hwy 132 between Natalia and Lytle. “Project Cinco” is a preliminary code name intended to protect the identity of the developers.
Lutz said the project is in the hands of private developer who plans to build the center to the specifications of a prospective tenant.
“Right now we don’t know who the tenant will be,” Lutz said.
According to the office of the Texas Comptroller, a county creates a TIRZ if records all taxable value of property within the zone. That establishes a base year with the appraised value of property with the zone recorded as the base value.
As development of redevelopment occurs, the appraised value of the property in the zone should increase. The difference between the increased value of the property in the zone and the base value is capture appraised value. Taxes levied and collected on the base value remains with the participating taxing units.
The portion of the taxes collected on the captured appraised value, or tax increment, is deposited in a tax increment fund (TIF). Revenues in the TIF can only be used for improvement projects in the TIRZ.
“It just defines the area,” Lutz said. “If we give any partial tax abatement it identifies an area of economic development where we are able to do that.”
In other action, the commissioners voted to accept a maintenance bond for street and drainage improvement issued by the Hunters Ranch subdivision, unit 12, in precinct 2.

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Medina County water alliance proposal to seek aquifer storage funding

By Anton Riecher
Plans to apply for grants and funding to support the Medina County Regional Water Alliance’s proposed 50,000 acre-foot aquifer storage and recovery project have been approved by the Texas Water Development Board planning group for central Texas.
Russell Persyn, engineering consultant on the project, reported during the MCRWA’s Nov. 5 meeting in Hondo that he had been conferring with the TWDB’s Region L planning group and a decision about including the project in the latest draft of the state water plan that was expected on Nov. 7.
“Since the last time (Region L) met the regional planning group has put together the project,” Persyn said. “They’ve presented it to their executive committee with no issues there.”
Aquifer storage and recovery is the use of a well to store potable water in a suitable aquifer during times of plenty to be withdrawn during periods of drought. Supporters of the project have compared it to a bank account.
Persyn’s presentation on Nov. 5 included an extensive update on planning with cost now projected at nearly $480 million since Region L became involved.
“We were north of $700 million when we started talking, so obviously that kind of got my attention when I was working with them,” he said.

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VOTING INFO for Medina County residents and Natalia elections

Early voting kicked off this week and will continue Oct 21-25th (8am-5pm), Saturday Oct. 26 (7am7pm), Sunday Oct. 27 (9am-3pm), and Monday-Fri October 28th-November 1 (7am-7pm).
Voters can vote anywhere in the county including at the Medina County Courthouse Annex in Hondo, Medina County Pct 4 Annex building in Devine at 317 Hwy 132N, and the Medina County Pct 2 building in Castroville at 8366 FM 471 South. See page 4 for more.
Election Day will be Tuesday, November 5 (7am-7pm).
Look for a sample ballot on www.DevineNews.com

NATALIA ELECTIONS

Along with National and State elections which are ongoing, there are two big races for Natalia residents including a City Council election and a School Board election.

There are four candidates vying for positions on Natalia City Council. The candidates are: Mike Fernandez, Selica L Vera, Sam Smith and Valerie Michelle Naff.
The are four candidates are vying for 3 positions on the school board. The Natalia School board candidates are: Andrew Besa, Eric Smith, Fernando Garza, and Tracy Myers.

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Overall Medina County budget to raise tax revenue by 16.2% or $3.7 Million

Medina County will have a public hearing on August 26 at 9 AM in the Medina County Courthouse Annex located in the Commissioner’s Court room in Hondo. The current proposed budget will increase the budget by $3.7 million compared to last year. Increasing property taxes from higher appraisals accounts for much of it, as well as new property added to the tax roll with the massive growth Medina County is seeing.
A majority of County leaders received raises this year. Raises and travel expenses for county leaders in this year’s budget can be seen in the public notice on page 7.
How growth has impacted the county…
Experts cite population growth and increased development as one of the reasons property taxes have skyrocketed in areas like ours. The rapid influx of people and expansion of communities requires additional infrastructure, amenities, and services to meet the growing needs.

Many of the developers costs are offset by tax incentives called TIRZ zones in Medina County.
The first major development in the Castroville area, Potranco Ranch, included tax incentives for developers called a TIRZ zone. When we checked last summer, under the TIRZ agreement offered by Medina County commissioners, Potranco Ranch’s developers was projected to receive a total Reimbursement Amount of over $12 million dollars ($12,295,461) over a 30 year period.
As of May 2024, so far the county had remitted $1.9 million to developers of Potranco Ranch developers.
So for example, in 2024 of the $751K projected property tax revenue in the zone, an amount of $516K was to be paid back to developers, while the county was projected to recieve $221K of the $751K collected.
And that is just the amount of money that has been remitted to one of the 4 TIRZ zones in the county.
As reported in May, with Medina County farms and ranches being subdivided rapidly, land being used for agriculture decreased by over 15,600 acres in one year (2023-2024). The amount of ag land lost last year is more than the amount of agriculture land lost than in the previous five years combined.
At the same time, land used for residential increased by over 15,500 acres in Medina County in the same 1-year time period (2023-2024).
The number of homes in Medina County has grown from18,791 homes in 2017 to 25,938 in 2024 (as of May), according to Medina County Chief Appraiser Johnette Dixon, who provided the sobering facts and figures.
According to Dixon, Medina County also saw a 237% increase in net Taxable Value from 2017 to 2024 (as of May). The increase is due to new industrial properties, new developments, and the overall market in general, she said.
Average Home values:
Average home values in Medina County had jumped by $41,000+ in just two year’s time as seen in the chart below (info as of May 2024).
2022 – $253,805
2023 – $295,180
2024- $295,475 (as of May 2024)
NOTE: You may notice other public hearings such as the one for ESD4. That is a separate taxing entity, as Medina County does not provide its own emergency ambulance service or fire services. Each ESD in the county is responsible for taxing and providing ambulance and fire service to their respective communities.

Burn ban on the horizon; $576K construction bond accepted for subdivision

By Anton Riecher
With rain in the forecast for the coming week, the Medina County Commissioners Court once again tabled action on a local burn ban at its July 22 meeting. However, Precinct 1 Commissioner Jennifer Castiglione urged the court to keep the situation in mind.
“It’s so dry right now it will only take a spark and we can have a serious fire on our hands,” she said.
The Texas A&M Forest Service reports that as this week 86 Texas counties are under a local burn ban, including Bexar County. A burn ban means no outdoor burning is allowed expect in an enclosure that contains all flames and/or sparks.
Castiglione and other commissioners reported road crews have been occupied with removing fallen trees that have toppled due to the ongoing drought conditions.

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Medina commissioners accept federal grant to develop flood plan, approve more subdivisions

By Anton Riecher
Medina County commissioners voted Monday to accept a $542,000 Federal Emergency Management Agency grant for flood mitigation assistance administered through the Texas Water Development Board.
On a motion by Precinct 3 Commissioner David Lynch, seconded by Precinct 4 Commissioner Danny Lawler, the commissioners voted unanimously to accept the funding for development of a county wide flood mitigation plan.

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Voters face a mammoth $290 million bond issue in Medina Valley ISD

MVISD enrollment was at 3,870 just a little over 10 years ago, and is expected to explode to more than 18,000 within the next 10 years.

By Anton Riecher
In the Devine-Natalia-Lytle region, Medina County voters will decide on more than $54.4 million in bond issue proposals for their respective school districts this May. While certainly significant, that burden pales by comparison to what Medina Valley ISD alone is asking on its May ballot — $290 million.
MVISD board member Jason Bonney attributes the need to phenomenal expansion in enrollment experienced by the district.
“For the past few years we’ve had a crazy amount of enrollment and growth,” Bonney said. “We rank as the fifth fastest growing school district in Texas.”
The $290 million request comes only about a year after voters approved a $376 million bond issue for construction of a second high school and other district improvements, district superintendent Scott Caloss said in a video posted to the district’s website.
“In last year’s bonds we addressed the overcapacity at our high school,” Caloss said. “In this bond, we are having to address the capacities of our middle schools and elementaries.”
If approved, the new bond issue would cover the addition of a middle school and two elementary campuses, among other district improvements.
Medina Valley ISD covers 296 square miles of Medina and Bexar counties including the communities of Castroville, La Coste, Rio Medina, Dunlay and Mico. The district boasts more than 8,700 students distributed across eight campuses – five elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school.
Despite the trumpeting of development along the Austin-San Antonio corridor, a generous amount of San Antonio’s metropolitan growth is moving west into Medina County. The county subdivision map displays an explosion of housing projects west of Loop 1604 bearing names such as Potranco West, Alsatian Oaks, Megan’s Landing and Hunter Ranch.
That expansion shows no sign of letting up. Only last March plans for a new $700 million subdivision between Castroville and San Antonio was announced. Add to this Microsoft’s new $1 billion data center just outside of Castroville and the result is a school district swamped by incoming families.
“Because the growth in the San Antonio-Bexar County area is so overwhelming the current middle schools and high school just cannot facilitate the number of students projected,” Bonney said. “We are projected to be at our maximum in our current middle schools and elementary schools by next year.”
As of 2023 district enrollment stood at 8,727 students, of which slightly more than 5,225 attend elementary schools. Even with a new elementary opening this fall, that attendance is expected to be over the district’s capacity by 2025-26. By 2028-29, elementary attendance is projected to reach 7,000 students.
The district’s middle schools, with slightly over 2,000 students in attendance, are also expected to be overcapacity by 2025-26. Middle school attendance is expected to hit 3,000 students by 2028-29.

Within a decade, total district enrollment is projected to swell by at least 1,000 new students, projections posted on the district’s website state.
While Texans continue to struggle with high property taxes, a key point in winning support for the MVISD bond issue is that no tax rate increase is tied to the latest bond proposal. Each new home sold increases the appraised value of the property it stands on, Bonney said.
The projection on population growth in the next few years stands at between 10 and 12 percent. That represents 14,000 new homes either…

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Medina commissioners approve legal agreement to protect historic courthouse

By Anton Riecher
Medina County Judge Keith Lutz cast the tie-breaking vote Monday on whether the county would grant the Texas Historical Commission a “preservation easement” as a condition of receiving a courthouse preservation grant.
“In my opinion we are putting another person at the table with us when it is time to make decisions about the courthouse,” Lutz said.
In March Medina County commissioners unanimously approved the intermediate step in a three-phase program to qualify for a potential $10 million in state funding to renovate the county courthouse in Hondo. That application was submitted to the THC April 5.
As part of that application the THC is asking the commissioners to grant…

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HANK and SJRC connection

By Anton Reicher and Kayleen Holder
In business discussed at Medina County Commissioner’s Court, it was announced that St. Jude’s Ranch for Children (SJRC Texas) will take the reins of property owned by HANK, Inc., a charity established 14 years ago by John and Debbie Southwell to provide food, clothing and shelter for hundreds of local foster children.

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Application for courthouse renovation grant moves forward in Hondo

By Anton Riecher
Medina County commissioners unanimously approved the intermediate step in a three-phase program to qualify for a potential $10 million in state funding to renovate the county courthouse in Hondo.
“We are getting ready to submit our plan to the Texas Historical Commission,” County Judge Keith Lutz told the commissioners during their regular meeting Monday.
Gabriela Fierro with McKinstry Company, LLC, experts on maintaining government buildings, presented details on the timetable to meet the May 13 deadline to apply for the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program.
“We had a really successful meeting last week in Austin at the THC,” Fierro said. “This was the time for us to go through the first stage of draft plans with…

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