Jefferson City Council officials are looking at a potential annexation within the Meadows by the Club subdivision, as six property owners have applied for a voluntary annexation.
At the Annexation Committee meeting Monday, staff told the City Council about six property owners on Willowlake Court who have applied to be annexed within the city. However, while the area would align with a city boundary on one side, it would create a pocket of unincorporated territory within the city boundaries.
Janice McMillan, planning and protective services director, said the boundary in that area of the city, south of U.S. 50 near the Capital Mall, is already irregular.
"Voluntary annexation would exacerbate that issue," McMillan said.
McMillan said staff reached out to the properties that would remain in unincorporated territory to see if they would be interested in annexing into the city, receiving mixed results. If the city chose to pursue a voter-approved annexation for a larger, more contiguous, area, she said staff would need 12 to 24 months to prepare to put the issue on the ballot.
But it wouldn't be the first time the area was considered for annexation.
In 2012, the city pursued a larger
annexation of the Meadows by the Club subdivision that included 158.2 acres in the Apache Flats area, including 27 housing units and two hotels. Included in the area were the Hampton Inn, Comfort Suites, J.C. Mattress Factory, a quarry, a turtle farm and the Meadows by the Club subdivision.
The issue failed to pass with a simple majority in both the city limits and the proposed annexed area in August 2012. In the proposed annexed area, 16 had voted against the annexation, while 10 voted in favor. Within the city, 69 percent had voted in favor, with 30 percent against.
Because it failed, a second vote was taken in November 2012 that needed a two-thirds majority in the combined area of the city and the proposed annexation area to pass. The Meadows by the Club annexation proposal received 64.96 percent in favor, falling just short of the needed 67 percent. Within the annexation area, 12 voted in favor and nine voted against in the November 2012 vote.
Because the annexation proposal failed, state law had prohibited the city from making another effort to annex that area for the next two years.
Officials expressed concerns that if they went ahead with the voluntary annexation now, it would lower the likelihood of a larger, voter-approved annexation attempt passing, as a portion of those residents likely to vote in favor would already be city residents.
Because of that, the committee voted to direct staff to pursue the voluntary annexations, but with an effort to increase the size of the voluntary annexation first. Mayor Carrie Tergin noted she and the two 4th Ward council members, Glen Costales and Carlos Graham, would try to meet with residents of the area to discuss the issue, as the area would belong to the 4th Ward if annexed.