La Center to annex 43 acres into city

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The city of La Center approved more than 40 acres of land in its urban growth area to move forward with the annexation process, though no development is proposed for the larger portion that could be included at this time.

The La Center City Council approved two separate intents to annex during their May 8 meeting. The first annexation was about 38 acres on the west side of North Fork Avenue within the La Center Urban Growth Area. The second was on roughly five acres south of the Holley Park area near La Center Middle School.

Eric Eisemann, the planning consultant for the city, explained the notice to intent to annex was one of the first steps to move forward with an annexation proper. Following the council’s approval of the notice of intent, he explained the applicants could then come forward with a petition to annex that required 60 percent of the property owners in the area. Following that petition, the actual annexation ordinance would be presented in a public hearing.

EIsemann noted that becasue the properties in both annexations were solely owned by the applicants, it wouldn’t be an issue reaching that 60% threshold.



Eisemann said that for the second annexation, because of the way property boundaries lined up, there was a small percentage of the property to be annexed outside of the city’s urban growth area — he explained that only the land in the growth area could be annexed.

Matthew Conner, one of the owners who applied for the 38-acre annexation, said that he had moved onto the property about five years ago and declined to pursue coming into the city for the time being. He said that city services, including police, were attractive to him for annexation, adding that although he has no plans for development at that time the addition of a mixed-use overlay as part of the annexation would allow for events to be hosted on the site.

A time for when the next phases of the annexation process would happen was not given at the meeting.