News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters residents may yet vote on annexing the city's 340-acre urban growth boundary area, but the city has not decided whether to put the matter on the May 18 ballot.
The Sisters City Council, in their meeting Thursday, January 28, held off on a decision to put the proposal to a vote. The council had previously agreed to put the proposal on the March ballot, but city staff could not put election materials together in time to meet the ballot deadline.
Howard Paine, a board member of Oregon Communities for a Voice in Annexations, argued that the city does not now have time to do the required planning and studies to conduct the kind of annexation vote that Bend passed last fall. That vote combined the votes of all the people inside the city with those living outside the city limits inside the urban growth boundary in a single vote.
"Under that situation, I don't think you can make the May (18) ballot," Paine said. "I tell you, you have to jump through a lot of hoops to do a combined election annexation. I would suggest that you may want to look at another way to do your election."
An alternative is to have a split vote, one of in-city residents and another of residents of the UGB area.
City attorney Steve Bryant later told The Nugget that the city would, in fact, likely pursue a different tack in the election - which would not include a combined vote. According to Bryant, the city already has received consent to annex from nearly all the property owners in the UGB area.
Unlike Bend, there are very few people - perhaps 30, according to city staff - living inside the UGB but outside the city limits.
City councilor Tim Clasen is not sure the city residents should vote on annexing the entire area at once. He argues that doing so goes against the residents' desire to have a say in annexations.
Sisters voters passed a measure two years ago requiring that all annexations must be approved by a vote of the people. Since then, one annexation and two advisory votes on future annexations have been placed on the ballot. All have passed by wide margins.
Mayor Steve Wilson argued that most of the available land in the UGB is already developed or being developed. Councilor Dave Elliott noted that less than 60 acres of the 340-acre area are still "open" for development.
"It's easier to annex bare ground," Wilson argued, rather than wait for it to start filling up with residents who would probably not be willing to pay higher city taxes.
Once development occurs and people move in, the city could still force an annexation at the ballot box, but city officials believe that would just create bad feelings.
City planner Neil Thompson noted that Bend residents of the UGB area, who were out-voted by in-city residents on annexation, are angry about it. Paine described that annexation as "essentially a land grab."
Thompson said that when people buy a home on property that has already been annexed, "they know what they're buying; they know what they're getting into."
The city will likely vote on whether to put the annexation on the May 18 ballot at the next city council meeting.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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