The cities of Tyler and Lindale have been eyeing each other like two wary animals.
But are they predator and prey?
They both commissioned private census surveys.
The US census says they were both wrong.
And they both plan to challenge that figure.
And there’s a lot at stake, like the survival of one of them.
Tyler and Lindale have both seen tremendous growth in the last few years.
And that growth needs room. Tyler, not satisfied to wait for the census, commissioned its own back in 2006. They said they had more than 100,000 people.
And that’s important when you need room.
A city under 100,000 has an extra territorial jurisdiction of just 31/2 miles.
When you’re over, it goes to 5. That means you reserve to yourself that distance, and can eventually annex it, and go out the next 5 miles.
A look at Tyler’s ETJ map shows that cities like Whitehouse, Bullard, Lindale, Chapel Hill, Chandler and Bullard.
Some of them are already essentially surrounded.
Lindale meanwhile has been asking adjacent landowners to join the city voluntarily to block Tyler’s northward march.
But, Uncle Sam says Tyler’s population is actually 96,900.
Lindale, meanwhile, has a survey that says they have over 5000 people. The Census says that’s wrong, too.
Both cities say they will sway the Census folks to their point of view.
But now, years of head-butting may be ending. KETK has learned that the two cities are negotiating a mutually agreeable set of boundaries to allow for both growth and sovereignty.
We’ll let you know if it actually happens.