Harlingen helps developers build in the city
Published: Sun, 01/15/23
Harlingen helps developers build in the city
ValleyCentral.com
by: Joe De Leon
Posted:
Updated:
HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Harlingen’s past approaches to construction were costing the city revenue, according to the city’s mayor.
“Harlingen was basically losing losing money,” Harlingen Mayor Norma Sepulveda told ValleyCentral, “because if we have more rooftops, we have more property taxes. We have more ability to increase the amount of money that we have, to provide the services to the community.”
After taking office, Sepulveda says she sat down with contractors in the community to see what could be done to spur growth.
“It was important to me to sit down with the developers in our community, whether it be engineers, surveyors, just individuals in in our community that have really been here in Harlingen for decades,” Sepulveda said.
One major issue she cited was the ability to build next to ditches. Contractors would previously have to build detention ponds next to construction sites that had ditches, which would raise the cost of construction.
“We’ve changed our policy to allow developers should they want to build near a ditch that they can widen that ditch instead of having a detention pond on site,” Sepulveda said.
Another issue was communication.
Ted Snavely, owner of LS Contractors, said they they would have to wait up to eight months for approvals from the city, which would put a halt on construction and cost the developers money. Now, he says communication has never been better.
“We also noticed that a lot more is getting done now,” Snavely said. “And the process is moving a lot smoother. Now, when it comes to building new homes or developing subdivisions, the more we’re able to do and quicker we can do things, the better it will help on the price.”
Developers said this brings more opportunities into the city, which they feel is just the beginning of new growth within the community.
“We got to bring more people into our community, and locally, we got to bring more business locally, people can be closer to family,” Snavely said.
Other developers said they expect the city to grow.
“The city Harlingen is sort of in a unique position, I think, because it’s in the middle sort of in the Valley,” said Luis Galvan, owner of Galvan Design Build. “You have to come through here to go to [South Padre] Island, to Brownsville and to the Upper Valley, so it’s in a good spot to continue to grow.”