Annexation

[Utclmjmpr]

We live in the southwest corner of Utah,(Cedar City ) in our subdivision we own the water company with two hundred co-owners participating.. We all pay $25.00 per month regardless of use,,our electricity is 0.8 cents per Kilowatt,, our natural gas is 8.8 cents per Dekatherm,( my average is 0.35 Dekatherms per year)( 1 Dekatherm = 1 million BTUs).
My property tax is $900.00 per year for 1 full acre of ground ( corner lot) Our trash pick-up is $14.00 per month and we are under pressure to be annexed into the city ( we have beat it back three times in the past )
I see no advantage in annexation for any reason,, our streets are owned and maintained by the county ( and well ), our fire protection is county provided,,(we own all our fire hydrants )( I have one at each opposite corners of my lot).......My neighbor is wildly for annexation and I cannot understand why, after enjoying the freedom of county living for 19 years I can't imagine giving it up for much greater taxation and useless ordinances in our lives..
WHAT AM I MISSING ??.>>>Dan

 

[NY_Dutch]

What does your neighbor claim are the advantages?

 

[PopPop51]

What is your neighbor's side of the story? Have you asked them for any specific reasons they approve of annexation? The other side's viewpoint is always worth probing into, even if it only confirms that their viewpoint lacks validity.

In my experience, annexations are usually pushed by developer-landowners who feel they can get more lucrative zoning out of the new governing body.

 

[edjunior]

We are also our own city here in Roman Forest TX. Our taxes are considerably higher (I wish I had your taxes!!). But we have our own Police department, our own Fire Department (though a new development across the street from them now claims them also, but they do help pay for them), and our own water MUD (Municipal Utility District). The city of Houston cannot annex us, even though they can annex everything around us. So while I pay way more taxes than you do, I enjoy the personal relationship between the police and the residents. The same with the fire department. And while a lot of Houston and surrounding areas were under a boil water mandate after "The Big Freeze", we never were. Our guys planned ahead and did whatever was necessary to keep the water running. This was the same after our flood events of the last few years also.

 

[Utclmjmpr]

This neighbor is an agriculture loan manager at our local and very well known bank. He is well known in the county as well as the city ( not involved politically that I know of ) Ours is a horse community and he has several on his property ( I am surrounded by them) I don't know what his political affiliation is and don't care, he is a good neighbor.. I guess I'll have to talk some with him to understand what the attraction is.>>>Dan

 

[Gizmo100]

This neighbor is an agriculture loan manager at our local and very well known bank. He is well known in the county as well as the city ( not involved politically that I know of ) Ours is a horse community and he has several on his property ( I am surrounded by them) I don't know what his political affiliation is and don't care, he is a good neighbor.. I guess I'll have to talk some with him to understand what the attraction is.>>>Dan

I could see a couple of reasons....
Being well known...... This could be a stepping stone to running for a city council or mayor's office. In most cities you have to live within the city limits in order to run for office. In most cases he could keep his day job and draw some benefits with a council position.
Yes taxes do go up... But insurance rates will drop with city fire protection. You also get city police coverage.

The last time I lived in AR. I was just outside the City of Conway. We had 10 houses on our Road. Most of us were interested in getting annexed into the city....Until we found out it would be 20 years or more before we would get tied into the city sewer system. That was the only reason we wanted be in the city. We already had water and cable TV/Internet and trash service. I just checked online and that road is surrounded on 3 sides by the city. But still not part of it.

 

[TheBar]

We thought the city tried to annex our neighborhood to increase their tax base. A year later we found out a developer had wanted to build a huge low cost public housing area on the open land next to us. That would have destroyed our property values and our very safe neighborhood. Don't let them annex you or you will be at their mercy.

 

[Utclmjmpr]

That is exactly what the city has done across a main hwy. from or subdivision 5 years ago the last time we rejected an annexation try.. They annexed a large area south of us for that very reason.>>>Dan

 

[X-Roughneck Strike 3]

When I lived in San Antonio, we purchased a home in Stone Oak, and they fought off a annexation attempt. That was north of the outer loop 1604. I never understood how it worked, but I paid tax to both Comal and Bexar (Pronounced Bear) Counties the residents won that battle as I believe they only annexed the businesses out on the 281 corridor, Supposedly less Taxes than those houses in the "city Proper". Reality is they wanted the revenue but did not want to expand life support coverage.

To me annexation is a one way Cash proposition. You are the party that will have less in your pocket at the end.

San Antonio is very unique. The way they run the Power and Water they force you in using CPS and SAWS. I have my theories as to why, but won't state them here.

The Highway 281 that splits the city leads north to the Small Town of Bulverde. The urban sprawl of San Antonio is spreading further to the North, reminds me of Dallas Ft Worth and the Miles of cities in between, Bedford, Hurst, Arlington, Euless.

The Potential for Cash I am sure that is their only rationale. We were considered to live in the Un-Incorporated Areas which meant, Volunteer Fire Dept (Highly Rated I may Add) and protect by the Sherriff, no City Patrol and No City Trash or Bulk Pick up. Mayoral Elections and city Bonds we could not vote as the vote was restricted to the Urban Core. All the Expensive homes to the north had 0 say on election topics. Trash were all contracted thru the HOA.

It has its pluses, but the negatives are much greater in my opinion.

JD

 

[John From Detroit]

WHAT AM I MISSING ??.>>>Dan

The City is likely operating in the red and is looking at your community as a "Cash Cow" that's what you are missing, High taxes due to corrupt political practices.

When I was in High School the Smallest K-12 in Michigan I might add and I'm was, at the time, the youngest graduage (by 3 months) the school ever graduated... The School used a lot of BLACK INK in their ledger they had a positive bank balance.

A much larger school down the road wanted to "Consolidate" (Synonym of annex) because we had cash and they had lots and lots of red ink in their ledger and a negative bank balace.. Thankfully our electorate felt it was a bad idea.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Follow the money. It's always the money...

Cities expand. Population growth increases revenue, revenue increases "power" - People need places to live. Check your zoning.

I just bought 5 acres a few miles outside city limits. It's zoned AG1 - That allows one residence per (up to) 5 acres. Maybe, eventually, the nearby city will expand and want to slice my 5 acres into 1/2 acre worker farms. Hopefully won't happen before I die.

For now I am looking forward to living "county" - Sheriff, county roads, county services are fine for me. Also county "rules" - neighbors mean HOAs and rules and all that baloney...

 

[Jayflight]

In general once you are annexed into an existing city, the individual home and land owner has little say about what the charges are to operate the infrastructure. Currently we are also witnessing huge migration of folks from heavily populated areas to either no state income tax or to less populated areas creating more strain on what would be considered skeleton services by most standards. But in the states with no income taxes the overall costs is shared across a broader portion of the population with higher fees, as its sometimes called on registrations and groceries for an example


. So if you live in a city in most cases you also pay county and city taxes too. This normally includes a percentage to operate schools, even if you have no kids of school age. So when people move out of a city to the country this reduces the revenue even more . So the cities push to gobble back up the revenue by annexing.