Meadows moves to Jefferson City

Voluntary annexation of subdivision approved unanimously

Their journey lasted five years, but most of the residents in the Meadows by the Club subdivision are now full-fledged, tax-paying residents of Jefferson City. It hasn't been a journey without its ups and downs.

The City Council voted unanimously this week to approve a voluntary annexation and zoning plan for nine acres comprising portions of the unincorporated areas in the Meadows neighborhood in the 4th Ward and contiguous to the western city limits.

Eighteen of the 25 property owners along Willow Lake Court and Pinehurst Court had petitioned the city for the voluntary annexation earlier this year. Two other owners recently requested similar inclusion and will be processed with additional legislation at the Dec. 19 council meeting, City Planning Director Janice McMillan said at this week's council session.

The vote means the homes and homeowners in the area, first platted in 1991, will now receive a vast array of municipal services, benefits and rates effective Jan. 1, 2017, per the ordinance the council approved this week.

Those services include: fire and police protection; street maintenance including snow removal and street signing; Handiwheels paratransit service; street lights; an adjustment of existing city sewer rates; solid waste collection; and participation in the city's appointed boards and commissions.

The sewer rate adjustments are significant.

"The monthly base rate will be adjusted from $32.16 to the city rate of $10.72. Usage rates also will drop. For example, a two-person household currently paying the $45.04 per month 'outside city' rate will drop to $23.60 per month," the ordinance states. The solid waste collection rate will drop from $25 to $14.65 for a 65-gallon trash cart. The ordinance notes no application fees are associated with a petition for voluntary annexation.

McMillan and her department also calculated the additional revenues the city will receive ($1,046 per household), the increased costs from the annexation ($1,767 per household) and the net cost the city will absorb per household, which is $721. The specific elements of the formula look like this:

Increased revenues per household - $528 in real estate taxes, $72 in personal property taxes, $297 in general revenue taxes and $149 in franchise taxes.

Increased expenditures from annexation per household - $399 in fire protection, $582 in police protection, $165 in streets and $621 in general government.

There is a history to the Meadows annexation history.

The city's Planning and Zoning Commission first reviewed a Meadows annexation plan in February 2012. A proposal went before the voters in the November 2012 election, but 64.96 percent favorable vote fell shy of the required 67 percent. The News Tribune reported at the time 1,189 voters did not mark their ballot on the annexation issue. And the vote in the annexation area was 12-9 in favor. That proposal would have annexed 158.2 acres in the Apache Flats area, including 27 housing units and two hotels, a mattress factory, a quarry, a turtle farm and the Meadows subdivision.

McMillan said Meadows resident Kathi Harness "approached me a couple of years go asking to participate in curbside recycling." The voluntary annexation affecting Harness and most of her neighbors grew from that simple request. A City Council committee first reviewed this voluntary annexation bid in August 2015.

"It has been a long, long time coming involving several meetings with the community," 4th Ward Councilman Carlos Graham said. "This was a great job by Mrs. McMillan and her staff." Second Ward Councilman J. Rick Mihalevich, who sponsored the ordinance, echoed Graham's comments and called it a "great deal" for the Meadows residents.

Mayor Carrie Tergin added she was "excited to see this population growth for the city." She described the voluntary annexation a "win-win" for the residents and the city.