'Take back the neighborhood': 6 areas in Austin, including Lost Creek, could vote to ditch the city

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- It's a neighborhood Leslie Odom describes as "a piece of heaven." She's lived in Lost Creek in southwest Austin for 13 years.

She and her neighbors are in one of six Austin territories that will get to vote this May on whether they want to stay in the City of Austin or disannex after the city wrangled them into city limits less than a decade ago.

"If the City of Austin delivered on the services that they promised us, then guess what? They have nothing to worry about on this vote. But if they did not deliver, Lost Creek is going to show up and tell them that we were not happy, and we think it wasn't fair and we're going to take back the neighborhood that's ours," Odom said. She was one of the people behind the state-level push to make the vote happen.

Last year, Texas passed legislation that gave Odom what she wanted. House Bill 3053 specifically targeted areas annexed into cities that have a population of 500,000 people or more between March 3, 2015 and December 1, 2017.

You can find maps of each of the six areas that could vote to remove themselves from Austin city limits here.

"This is a brand new law so other communities and other areas are watching us under a microscope to figure out what's going to happen to us and what that means for them," Odom said.

According to the City, property taxes will be collected from the areas -- should they vote to disannex -- until "the area's share of City debt has been paid off."

"In sum, disannexation will not have an impact on City revenue," a spokesperson for the city said.

What about city services?

"Following voter approval of disannexation, a City Council vote would be taken to acknowledge the will of the voters. A number of steps would also be taken during the transition as various City services transfer to other providers," the city continued.

Here are the services that would change, Austin said:

• The Travis County Sherriff’s Office would provide law enforcement instead of the Austin Police Department
• The nearest Emergency Service District (ESD) would respond to fire-related incidents instead of the Austin Fire Department
• Austin-Travis County EMS will remain the same
• For people with Austin Water, the city will continue to provide water and wastewater service. The city says there will be no change in rate
• The same for Austin Energy customers, but those in the disannexed areas would pay the out-of-city customer rate
• Austin Resource Recovery services such as trash, recycling, composting, large brush, bulk and dead animal collection, and street sweeping would be phased out
• The Watershed Protection Department’s Drainage Utility charges and drainage services would end

These additional city services would also be discontinued:

• Code enforcement
• Street maintenance
• Streetlight maintenance
• Sidewalk and crosswalk maintenance 
• Traffic sign maintenance
• Right of way permitting
• Public Health and sanitation regulation, such as litter on the rights of way
• Maintenance of drainage infrastructure