At its regular meeting Sept. 2, San Marcos City Council extended a development agreement offer to Lazy Oaks Ranch, the developers of the proposed La Cima project, which would include up to 2,400 residential units, parks, 200 acres intended for a corporate campus and more. Under the city's development agreement offer, the 2,031 acres proposed for the development would remain outside of the city limits until the developer submitted a plat—a document that details plans for construction—or "related development document" to the county. Councilman John Thomaides said the council-appointed La Cima subcommittee, which is composed of Thomaides and councilmen Ryan Thomason and Wayne Becak, has been focused on resolving details related to the annexation of the property during the past 45 days. "The original proposal was for a 45 year deferral of annexation," Thomaides said. "Myself and others in the community asked for annexation from day one. This is neither of those. This is a compromise." According to City Council's official statement regarding La Cima, the city would like the property to be annexed as soon as development begins so that it is compensated for municipal services—like police and fire protection—in the form of property taxes. The statement also lists "economic and demographic benefits of having a development such as La Cima located within its city limits" as reasons for pursuing annexation. "The [subcommittee's] proposal went out after 5 p.m. on the Friday of Labor Day weekend," Lazy Oaks Ranch Principal Chuck Perry said. "To ask us to take a look at a project of this scope in one day We are reviewing it. That's something the attorneys are looking at right now." According to city documents, the offer will be considered rejected if it has not been accepted by Sept. 16, the date of the council's next meeting. The city's offer comes after nearly three months of negotiations between the city, county and developer. The development is an update to a 2013 agreement between the city and Lazy Oaks Ranch, for a development to be called Lazy Oaks. In 2014 the developer returned to the city with an updated plan that included an additional 634.59 acres and a new name. That new proposal was accompanied by a request to create a public improvement district, a mechanism used to finance infrastructure, parks and other amenities and facilities used in subdivisions. PIDs are typically constructed using bond debt issued by municipalities or counties. That bond debt is repaid by residents who move into the neighborhood and must pay an "assessment" on their property. That assessment can typically be paid off at once as a lump sum or over an extended period. Perry said as long as the total burden on residents is below $3 per $100 of property valuation, La Cima could be competitive with similar developments. According to documents accompanying the city's offer, if San Marcos were to annex the property, the total tax burden would be 58 cents below that $3 mark. According to the documents, that would allow the developer enough room to finance $58 million of projects within the development. Thomason provided the lone vote against extending the development agreement offer, and he said he was not even aware that the item would be on the agenda until a packet meeting Aug. 29. "We're very, very close," Thomason said. "We're so close to having this entire thing wrapped up. I'm not in support of this. Not that I'm not supportive of the concept, and not that we're not close to having everyone agreeable to inside the city limits, but I don't want to break the process." Councilman Jude Prather abstained from the vote because he is employed by the county, which is working with the developer on possibly creating the PID.