The Jefferson City Council has approved an agreement with St. Martins that establishes a boundary between the two cities for future annexation efforts.
At the City Council meeting Tuesday, members approved a bill to authorize an agreement with St. Martins about sewer rates and limits to annexation. The bill authorizes a 25-year agreement between Jefferson City and St. Martins where St. Martins residents will pay twice the base rate paid by Jefferson City residents. City officials estimate the increase in sewer revenues will raise an additional $45,000 for the wastewater fund.
It also establishes a boundary line between the two communities to prevent encroaching annexations. The bill describes the boundary line as "a line of Binder Park, Wade and Mist Roads, and Old Lohman Road and Route D (as they exist on the date of this agreement)."
The bill was moved to the council's informal calendar last month, and City Attorney Drew Hilpert said since then some minor changes were made at the request of St. Martins officials. Hilpert said the changes mainly focused on providing definitions and clarifying that St. Martins owns the sewer system within its city limits, though Jefferson City maintains the system.
The boundary line was last discussed two years ago when an annexation boundary agreement with St. Martins was rejected by the council. The agreement had laid out the boundary line as limits of annexation, with exception to areas St. Martins had already annexed east of the line and to a portion of Binder Park that laid west of the line.
In March 2012, many council members said they were not convinced the agreement was in the city's best interest. In exchange for agreeing to leave Binder Park to Jefferson City, the city would have continued to give St. Martins residents the sewer rates promised to them in an agreement from 1989. That agreement gave a portion of the St. Martins sewer system to Jefferson City, requiring the city to maintain the system and give St. Martins residents the same sewer rate as Jefferson City residents.
According to the bill summary, "in speaking with (an) alderman from St. Martins at the time of the agreement (in 1989), it was learned there was also a "handshake' deal (in which) St. Martins agreed not to annex toward Jefferson City." But since then, St. Martins has annexed several properties south of Binder Park, which Jefferson City officials continue to say "were very likely illegal."
In April 2011, the city hired an outside lawyer to look at the annexation efforts by St. Martins and Taos. That process resulted in a presentation to the city that described any and all potential issues with annexation efforts and any inconsistencies with state law.
At the time, St. Martins representatives defended their annexation efforts and rejected any notion of a potential suit from Jefferson City, even though St. Martins officials had received a notice from then city attorney Nathan Nickolaus questioning whether St. Martins' voluntary annexations in 2004 were contiguous and compact.
Hilpert said since the last agreement was rejected two years ago, there have been lots of discussions between city officials and council members of both cities to come to the current agreement.
Part of the agreement includes prohibiting Jefferson City from challenging St. Martins previous annexations. Hilpert noted St. Martins officials also have approved the agreement.