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The Austin City Council, during their work session Monday night, gave unanimous approval for next steps in Austin Utilities request to expand territory.

According to General Manager Mark Nibaur, a municipal utilities can’t expand unless the city itself expands. The city of Austin in recent years expanded to two chunks of land — east of Highway 218 and Applebee’s and a larger chunk of land east of that parcel and Interstate 90.

“We really can’t expand our customer base without moving territory and expansion into that territory or property,” Nibaur said.

Austin Utilities is also working with Freeborn-Mower Cooperative, which currently serves those two areas.

Nibaur said he hopes to return to the council in around two months with a 10-year service agreement contract.