City Engineer

 

In 2000, the Engineering Office of the city was established. This office helps coordinate the staff’s review of subdivision plans being filed inside the city limits and its extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ. The ETJ is a statutory limit outside Mission’s city boundaries that we have authority and control over in order to maximize orderly development. Currently, Mission’s ETJ is 5 miles outside the city limits. When ETJ limits overlap with other cities, inter-local agreements are mutually agreed upon.

The reason ETJ is mentioned in the Engineering Office’s function is because it provides the reader a gauge of just how much work is being provided not only to Mission residents but to future Hidalgo County residents that live miles outside Mission. The office not only monitors a subdivision plat’s route to being recorded but is expected to provide on-site inspections of water, sewer, street, drainage and sidewalk improvements when necessary.

Letters of Credit, or LOCs, which are monies set aside to assure that all improvements are completed to minimum codes, are also monitored by this office. If improvements, such as streets, are not complied with, then this office will extract monies from the LOC to complete the job to assure full compliance. This office serves as one of the main contacts with developers, engineers and other representatives considering a development, but for different types of developments, different rules apply. The Engineering Office is well informed with the different development rules and standards. For example, if one is considering a basic single family residential lot subdivision, certain rules apply that would not apply to an industrial complex development. The same is true for apartment subdivisions, which differ from mobile home subdivisions.

This office heavily coordinates with the City Manager’s Office on several city-initiated projects, such as an arterial or collector street to be widened or utility extension projects. If utility lines need to be relocated or adjusted outside the future pavement width, it is expected that the Engineering Office would be one of the first consulted in this venture.

The Engineering Office is equipped with graphics software in order to prepare its own professional exhibits that have been very helpful in meetings before the City Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission. Although this office is the most recently established, it has been vastly used in giving much needed assistance to all departments.

For more information on this function and services, you may call (956) 580-8780.