Trophy Club MUD boundary expansion takes effect; town and MUD stop short of transferring water and fire operations

The municipal boundary expansion for Trophy Club Municipal Utility District No. 1 took effect Jan. 1, 2025, after Denton County recorded the district's expansion request on Dec. 20, 2024, but town and MUD leaders said on March 6 that formal transfers of water, sewer and fire services remain unresolved.

At a Town of Trophy Club work session, Brandon Wright, town manager, said the central appraisal district confirmed the expansion's effective date and that the boundary change means previously assessed PID emergency-service charges now appear under the district's property-tax categories for 2025. "One of the wins is — it can be written off on your taxes," Wright said when describing the change in assessment treatment for some properties.

Why it matters: the expansion resolves a long-running mismatch in who pays and who governs local utilities and emergency services, but elected officials and staff warned the legal agreements that would reallocate operations and budgets — chiefly the interlocal agreement (ILA) between the town and the MUD — still need negotiation. Those outstanding items include how capital replacements are funded, whether the MUD will use reserves or other revenues to cover shortfalls, and alignment on fire-department staffing and budgets.

The background: for decades Trophy Club residents have received water, sewer and fire/EMS services through a mix of Town, MUD and PID arrangements. Officials said the district historically operated water and sewer infrastructure and set water rates, while the town operated fire and EMS through an ILA that split responsibilities: the district pays a share of fire-protection costs and the town pays for EMS and other town-imposed expenditures.

Town officials described three programmatic gaps they want resolved before any service…