A federal judge has temporarily blocked the City of Austin from reasserting jurisdiction over roughly 170 properties the city had previously released under state law.
In granting the preliminary injunction, the court found Austin likely violated the property owners’ due process rights and lacked the legal authority to revoke the releases once they had been granted.
“Austin acts as though there’s no limit on its power. But the Constitution and Texas law have established clear boundaries on government authority — and the Court agrees,” said Alexa Gervasi of Cobb & Gervasi, PLLC, who represents the plaintiffs.
A coalition of property owners and the Schoenstatt Movement of Austin filed a lawsuit against the city in June 2026 after Austin attempted to place their land back into its extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), an area outside city limits where property owners are subject to certain city development regulations but cannot vote in city elections or receive most city services.
The properties were originally released under a 2023 state law, allowing landowners to petition for release from a city’s jurisdiction.
According to the complaint, approximately 170 property owners successfully petitioned for release from Austin’s ETJ over the past three years.
In March 2026, plaintiffs allege Austin rescinded those decisions “without a word of warning,” in some cases issuing violation notices the same day it sent the retraction letters.
The city claimed the properties should not have been released, citing their proximity to Bee Caves Armory. State law does not require the release of properties within five miles of a military base. Plaintiffs dispute that the armory qualifies, noting it doesn’t appear on Texas’ list of military installations.
The plaintiffs say Austin’s reversal stalled expansion projects, with developers at risk of losing “hundreds of millions of dollars in hard costs” invested in architectural plans and construction loans. The group alleges some property market values fell by two-thirds.
One plaintiff, the Schoenstatt Movement of Austin, says its development plans have stalled because the city’s reversal blocked the permits it needed. The chapel has outgrown its current campus and now holds Mass outdoors, turning parishioners away in bad weather, the exact problem the stalled development was meant to fix.
In granting the preliminary injunction, the court rejected Austin’s argument that it could invalidate previously approved releases, calling the argument a “nonsensical proposition.”
The judge also concluded it was unnecessary at this stage to decide whether Bee Caves Armory qualifies as a military base because the city had not shown it could revoke completed releases in the first place.
“This ruling reaffirms a basic limit on government power: a city cannot hand you a right and then revoke it on a whim,” said Bill Cobb, co-counsel for the plaintiffs. “When the Legislature let these owners out of Austin’s ETJ, that was the end of the city’s authority over their land. This decision protects not just these property owners, but every Texan who relies on the government keeping its word.”
The preliminary injunction prohibits Austin from treating the properties as part of its jurisdiction while the lawsuit proceeds. The court found the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claims that the city exceeded its legal authority and violated their due process rights.
