This morning., officials from Smith County and City of Tyler were to have jointly signed an interlocal agreement for unified platting and subdivision approval for development that occurs within the City's extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ). These amendments were unanimously approved by City of Tyler and the Smith County Commissioners Court earlier this month.

The agreement outlines guidelines for how the City and County will work together to maintain and monitor standards in construction of new subdivisions in the County, that may one day be annexed by the City. Also, the agreement promotes communication between County and City officials on infrastructure policy.

"The City and County have a long history of working cooperatively to simplify developing areas that lie within the County and City ETJ," said Tyler Mayor Barbara Bass. "This agreement formalizes processes that have long been in practice."

The Texas Local Government Code requires a municipality and county to enter into a written agreement that identifies the entity authorized to regulate subdivision plats and related permits for areas within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of a city. The City of Tyler and Smith County have apportioned the ETJ, with the City regulating some areas and Smith County regulating others.

The original interlocal agreement was adopted in 2004.

"For the past two years, we have worked closely with the City of Tyler and local developers in an attempt to revise this interlocal agreement related to development in the outlying parts of the County that fall within the City of Tyler's ETJ. This agreement is the culmination of that effort and really highlights how jurisdictions and organizations should work together on common interests. It will be beneficial for the citizens to know the roles of the entities in the development process, and it will assist developers in streamlining that process," County Judge Joel Baker said.

The resulting changes approved by the City Council and Smith County Commissioners Court are intended to streamline platting and permitting guidelines, clarify regulations, and continue cooperation between the governmental entities. Input was also obtained from the development community.

The new agreement will have an initial term of four years and will automatically renew for two additional four-year terms absent written notice from either party. The revised agreement provides that the City shall generally be responsible for regulating plats and subdivisions within the City limits, within ETJ Zone 2 (most areas outside of the City limits), and in ETJ Zone 4 (City land contiguous to Lake Tyler). Smith County shall generally be responsible for regulating in ETJ Zone 3 (areas within the Tyler ETJ created by the highway annexations of U.S. Highway 69 North and U.S. Highway 271 North).