Appraisal district’s $10M project proposal addresses growth demands
6 Jun 2025
Growth
Dalondo Moultrie | The Seguin Gazette
Guadalupe County’s rapid growth is straining existing public services, including the Appraisal District.
With its offices already at capacity, Guadalupe Appraisal District Chief Appraiser Peter Snaddon said the entity needs to expand. He and the board of directors are proposing a $10 million expansion project to the 33 county taxing entities that fund the appraisal district.
Snaddon presented three options to address his office’s space constraints; the appraisal district board selected the most expensive one.
“Of the three options, this is the one that provides us with what we were hoping for. It handles everything currently as well as what we need in the future,” he said. “The other two weren’t addressing the long-term issues of the district as I see it.”
The proposal involves purchasing the Mary B. Erskine campus on College Street in Seguin and reconfiguring the building for the appraisal district’s use, Snaddon said. The estimated cost of buying the property is about $1.9 million with renovations estimated at about $8.4 million for a total of nearly $10.3 million, he said.
The campus sits on about four acres and provides around 27,000 square feet of space for operations. The Guadalupe Appraisal District offices operate with about 8,800 square feet at it current facility located at 3000 N. Austin St., Snaddon said.
One of the other options to address concerns surrounded an 8,000-square-foot, single-story addition to the current building, he said. That option came in at an estimated cost of about $5.6 million, Snaddon said.
Another project option would have constructed an 8,960-square-foot, two-story addition to the existing facility, he said. The price tag for the two-story addition was about $5.2 million, Snaddon said.
The appraisal district is responsible for appraising property for tax purposes for all taxing entities within its county-wide boundaries, according to the Texas comptroller’s website.
Guadalupe Appraisal District has 33 taxing units, 28 of which receive a vote on issues facing the district, Snaddon said. Of the 28 units, Snaddon and the board need 21 yes votes to ratify implementation of the facility space planning project under consideration, he said.
With previous and predicted growth, the building is becoming increasingly too small for operations, Snaddon said. Space issues will worsen with projected county growth over the next 20 years, he said.
Members of the board heard his concerns and passed a resolution May 7 choosing the $10 million option to address current and future issues, Snaddon said. In recent weeks, Snaddon has presented the proposal to various county taxing units, seeking their approval.
As of Wednesday, Snaddon had presented the plan to the Seguin, Cibolo and Santa Clara city councils; the Seguin, Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City, Navarro and Luling ISD boards of trustees; the Lone Oak Farm Municipal Utility District board; the Lake Dunlap Water Control Improvement District board; and the Guadalupe County Commissioners Court.
As of Tuesday, all had approved the measure except the city of Santa Clara, which chose not to act on the motion, and Luling ISD, which was waiting to revisit the issue a couple weeks after Snaddon’s presentation to the board, he said.
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