Title
Annexation Policy (B)
This is a request for the General Policy Committee to hear a presentation from staff on past annexation efforts and discuss components of an annexation policy.
Explanation
In 2002, the City Commission adopted an annexation policy to facilitate the annexation of areas seeking to come into the city, regardless of size, and to review market research, voting patterns and other information to define areas that have the highest likelihood of annexation. Since that time voluntary annexations have generally been more successful than referendum annexations. Since 1985, referendum annexations have been successful about 40% of the time and voluntary annexations have had a 100% success rate.
Past experience has indicated that issue-specific annexation referendums are most likely to pass. Issues that have impacted the effectiveness of annexations over time have been related to access to public transportation, response times of critical services such as fire rescue, identification with urban living and the consolidation of homeowners associations under one governing body.
Annexation referendums require significant City resources. Staff has conducted a resource allocation analysis of past referendum efforts, demonstrating that additional resources would be needed to pursue future annexations by referendum. Surveys have been proposed as a less expensive option to determine interest in annexation and an increment for an Annexation Coordinator has been requested in recent years.
As a result of lessons learned from efforts of past years, the City’s annexation policy has remained focused on facilitating voluntary annexations and supporting referendums that have a high likelihood of success. Staff has worked with private property owners on voluntary annexations, particularly in the cases where the property owner or developer will see benefits from annexing into the City either through reduced fees or potentially more desirable land development regulations. Interest in annexation has fluctuated with changes in local fees and taxes as well as the economy as a whole.
The establishment of goals for an annexation policy should be discussed to ensure that the end result reflects the most recently established priorities of the City Commission. Goals will need to consider prerogatives and directives of all departments involved. Future annexation policies should be considered in terms of how they will integrate with each other to create a uniform annexation policy and strategy that can be implemented.
Recommendation
The General Policy Committee 1) receive a presentation from staff and 2) discuss and take action deemed appropriate.