A special meeting for an annexation? So much for deliberative process.

These late Friday afternoon agendas keep on coming.  The public deserves better notice from their servants.  Why the sudden rush on this ordinance when it’s been plodding along since September 2006?  Interesting to note that the Legal Department signed this agenda bill on 5/19/08.  Back to the future?

We must have an annexation emergency.

I am comfortable telling the City to approve annexing the Horton and Aldrich areas.

Here is a great example of why I have long proposed that the City Council have their own staff people.  Right now (and has been, forever) they have to depend on the general city staffers for preparation and tracking of issues.

Here is the story as it is being told to me - and forgive me if I have some small details wrong, but do correct this if there’s yet other major parts of the story:

In September 2006, the process for annexation of a section of the UGA was started, and a Public Hearing was held on June 18, 2007, with three relevant comments.  See the CoB Meeting MINUTES EXTRACT.

This area was one of five areas on the agenda that same day. 

The land is a tall rectangle just east (mauka) of Aldrich Road, north of the right-of-way of Division Road, and up to the right-of-way of Horton Road, behind (makai of) the Madrona Medical Center offices. See map.

After that hearing, the process was moving along, then it went on hold, pending some actions by the property owners who had initiated the petition.  They finally responded, and the next step by somebody at the City never happened (until now)—the step to make the action final by the City Council.

Somebody evidently caught this last week, and kicked the process into high gear—so here we are with a sudden, special meeting for approval to meet a deadline, to make the circumstances notably better for the City ($-wise), and to formalize what the property owners had already agreed to

So my usual cautionary mode suggests that this one is OK. 

Marian Beddill

This annexation still looks OK to me.  The need for urgency was because the deadline for assuring the developments would contribute to the customary fees that support city services was approaching, and final action was needed to make that happen. 

The record of the special meeting is available online at the City’s website.
http://www.cob.org/video/cc20080512.wmv for the video version. (Text minutes only get posted after formal approval.)

There was discussion about the desired trail through the properties, and integrating it with the school grounds, the center parcel.