magazine title

UCLA Environmental Law and Policy Journal

abstract

Sand Branch is Dallas County’s only remaining unincorporated community, and residents of this impoverished, majority-black community have had their cries for basic necessities such as clean running water largely ignored. So far, the county and the city of Dallas have not remedied the problem, raising questions about who is responsible for providing water and other utilities to 80 area residents. As it stands, Texas law only allows local governments to provide assistance to unincorporated communities and requires them to take proactive steps to ensure these communities are served. It’s not mandatory. When providing public services to unincorporated areas, how far does existing municipal law apply? And how will Sandbranch finally get the resources it has been struggling to get for decades? What do you need?

Recommended citations

deja pemberton
Come Hell or No Water: The story of Sandbranch and the unincorporated community’s struggle for public services.40

UCLA J. Envtl. L. & Polly

109 (2022).

Available at: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/student-scholarship/39