By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition

Wayne Duncan’s 100 acres is untouched, but the surrounding land has been annexed by the city of Killeen. “This is the last spring the land will look like this,” Duncan said. “Next year you will see houses over the fence.” — Photo by Mindy Poehl

April 27, 2006 - Last spring, the city of Killeen was engrossed in a 90-day annexation process which will allow the city of Killeen to expand south, the only direction which it can grow.

A local Killeen farmer, Wayne Duncan, whose family has been in the area since Bell County became a county, is upset with the manner in which the city forced the annexation. Rural residents are losing lots of acreage and the farmland will turn into housing projects.

“The city’s plans for the future does not include us (rural land owners). To have an annexation, the city of Killeen needed to have 100,000 residents,” Duncan explained. “In fall 2004, the population jumped from 84,000 to 102,000, and this was at a time when people were leaving the area due to military commitments.”

Duncan said the city had a one-time shot at this “land grab.”

“We (rural residents) tried to get them to explain where they got their numbers, but they gave us no answers,” Duncan said. “They (the city) could only take in less than 100 tracts of land, but there were loopholes in the annexation laws. They had area photographs and census data, but they deliberately used old data for the people living out here on the rural land. The city ended up claiming that they had 99 tracks of land.”

During the city council meeting in the spring of 2005, Duncan claims that the rural residents did not receive notification of the meetings, and “we were told to sit down and shut up, because you’ll mess up our count if we acknowledge you,” said Duncan.

Duncan said the city would not release a definitive map of the area or a list of the people affected. But, once the city began the garbage pickup, they had around 140 stops, “which means they were a little off on their count of 99,” Duncan said.

“As non-residents we (rural residents) did not vote for the city counsel who were making decisions on our life. We had no voice and no choice,” Duncan said. “It was a 90-day, pre-arranged deal when the annexation was announced.”

Duncan said this is the first time the city has ever had a master plan for growth.

“(The city) paid someone $50,000 in tax dollars to put on paper what they wanted,” Duncan explained. “The master-plan excludes all current landowners. The base map doesn't acknowledge our presence. The overlay transparencies of water and sewage were not on the map.”

A collection road is coming across the land, to aid in the future development of Killeen.

“The push for this is the new Killeen airport and the new veterans cemetery (that was a welcome facility), but the city didn’t want us to know about the future A&M campus,” Duncan said. 

He said that at a city council meeting, there was dead silence when a rural landowner asked if the city was going to provide services to the new A&M campus.

“They (city counsel) denied that the campus was even proposed. I think the reason is because most of the land out here belongs to older widow ladies and the city wants to get the land before the widows know what their land is worth,” Duncan explained. “Each piece of land has a road dissecting it to make it inconvenient for us.”

Both tracts of land around Duncan have been sold - one to a city council member and the other one was rezoned from agriculture to residential. The area is being marketed as a low income area.

Duncan does not want busy neighborhoods surrounding his property because “people will turn their dogs, cats and kids loose,” Duncan said. “If people shoot fireworks over the fence and burn my pasture, we have a problem. Kids can walk through snake dens. Dogs will kill the livestock. Statistically farming is more dangerous than law enforcement. The annexation will bring noise, traffic and nuisances.”

Duncan said the rural landowners are excluded by people who do not represent them by one single vote. 

“On a bigger picture, the same thing is happening all over the country,” Duncan said. “This annexation will not cause mass starvation, but it’s the cumulative effect. If this keeps happening, this country won’t be able to feed itself because all of the farmland will be taken. I believe this country will one day be a food importer because all of the farmland will be covered up.”

Duncan believes the same scenario will happen with the corridor project. It will push through some of the best black-land in the United States.

Duncan has contacted various state representatives, but he received no support from any one.

“The only interest they have in agriculture is what falls on their plates and their only interaction with wildlife is the bugs on their windshields,” Duncan said. “And I have that relationship with agriculture and wildlife and I don’t want to lose that to dollar stores and duplexes.”

The city of Killeen is encouraging high-density people housing, Duncan stated. An 800-acre ranch was divided to make room for 1,400 houses and, “that’s not a big lot,” Duncan said. “The city got 8.5 miles of our area. Forty-four people complained about high-density housing and they were completely ignored.”

He said the city is doing everything they can to push rural landowners off of their land. The city has already adjusted the taxes, and the only thing the city can’t do is force the zoning to change from agricultural to residential.

“My family has been on this land since 1949 and I’ve already promised my mother that we won’t have to move,” Duncan said. “This is the last spring the land will look like this. Soon, there will be houses over the fence.”

The city of Killeen was contacted, but no response was given.