Because Prosper decided to partner with the county, the Emergency Services District No. 1 will be on the November ballot for residents in Prosper’s unincorporated parcels in Collin County. It will also be seen on ballots of any Collin County resident in the unincorporated areas of cities that opted in for the program, Prosper’s Fire Chief Stuart Blasingame said during a May 13 presentation.
If approved, the ESD will create the district and a tax rate for residents only in the extraterritorial jurisdiction opted in for the district.
“There is no desire for the county or the ESD to actually have fire, EMS services, in other words, stations,” Prosper Town Manager Mario Canizares said. “It is purely a funding mechanism to reimburse those communities that provide services into the ETJ.”
The details
An ESD is the mechanism created by the Texas Legislature to provide fire protection and ambulance service in the unincorporated areas of the county, according to the Collin County’s website. A property tax will be levied only on those citizens within the ESD to provide the services for those who pay the ESD tax.
The services will be provided by the town or city the ESD is located within but it will receive funding from the ESD to provide those services.
Currently, there are over 350 ESDs in Texas, and they provide fire protection and ambulance service in the unincorporated areas of counties, whether by contracting for services with city fire departments or by creating their own fire departments, according to the county.
Presently, cities and towns with unincorporated areas are providing services that are partially funded through the county. For example, Prosper received about $260 last year for it to service its five unincorporated parcels of land, Blasingame said.
“Fire departments have been expected to handle substantially more calls with the same funding,” Blasingame said.
If a city is opted in and the ESD passes in November, it will create a property tax for residents in that unincorporated area and the city will receive funding to provide services to that area, Blasingame said. It is anticipated to be more funds than Prosper is currently receiving though funding will be allocated through a board that is appointed by the county.
“We are very lucky that we only have five very small parcels of land on the Collin County side that are not incorporated in the town limits,” Blasingame said.
Blasingame said the department has not responded to an emergency call in the Collin County unincorporated areas of Prosper. Those properties include a single home, four pieces of land and a storage facility, he said.
If a town opts out and the ESD passes, the unincorporated areas will not receive services from the county because it will not be considered part of the emergency district. The city would also not receive funding. The city could choose to service those areas without county funding though it will not be required to.
There is no plan for the ESD to create a fire department or run its own ambulance service. The county would offer services in case of an emergency though. It would not set up services in those ETJ but instead fund cities that opted in to respond to those areas, Blasingame said.
“From an ethical standpoint, it would be very difficult even if we said no [to the ESD] to know that somebody’s life was in jeopardy, to know that a building was on fire and very well would probably be a resident that’s on those premises and not respond to that,” he said.
How we got here
In recent years, the county has been setting aside about $1 million for municipal fire departments to handle calls outside their municipal boundaries, Blasingame said.
That funding though has not been increased in nearly 15 years but services have become more expensive, he said. This has been brought up by several other municipalities’ fire services, said Blasingame, who is also the Collin County fire chiefs association president.
If the ESD passes, Prosper looks to earn more revenue. It currently receives about $260 from the county and it looks to earn up to $3,849 instead, if a 7.5 cent per $100 valuation is levied on the ESD residents, Blasingame presented.
The ESD conversation started years ago. On Oct. 27, 2023, Collin County received a letter from the city of Melissa that as of October it would be terminating their agreement with Collin County to provide fire protection in their fire district. On September 30, 2024, the city of McKinney sent the county a letter that they would terminate the fire contract with the county effective October 2025.
That led to a petition for the ESD being created and sparking the ballot item:
- Feb. 6 - ESD petition sent to county judge
- Feb. 20 - ESD petition filed with the county clerk
- Feb. 24 - ESD petition before county commissioners
- May 13 – Prosper opts in for ESD
- July 21 – Commissioners court public hearing
- Nov. 4 – Election day for ESD creation
- Oct. 1, 2026 – ESD fiscal year begins, ESD fire contracts start
- Blue Ridge
- Farmersville
- Celina
- Josephine
- Lavon
- Lowry Crossing
- McKinney
- Melissa
- Murphy
- Nevada
- Princeton
- Prosper
- Weston
- Wylie
- Royse City
- Frisco
- Lucas
- Saint Paul
- Van Alstyne
Undecided include:
- Anna
- New Hope
- Parker
- Allen
- Garland
- Hebron
- Trenton
- Plano
This is not the first time an emergency service district was considered in Collin County. It was previously denied by voters in the early 2000s, Blasingame said.
The root cause for it now is the rapid population growth happening in the county, Blasingame said.
“This issue began several years ago in response to the rapid growth that we had in Collin County, which led to an increased demand for emergency fire and EMS services,” he said.
Looking ahead
The ESD is still up in the air until the November election.
It will take at least a year to establish a budget and start collecting money, if it passes, Blasingame said. It is unknown now how municipalities will operate under the ESD during that year of budget limbo.
If it does not pass, Blasingame said he is not sure what will happen. He reiterated though that in Prosper he and his team will continue to answer calls as needed.
“We are in the lifesaving business,” he said. “That is what we are there for.”
