Item B: River Road/Santa Clara Annexation Policy

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The Boundary Commission processes annexation applications under its policies (Attachment C) and in compliance with ORS 199. The Boundary Commission may approve annexations using an expedited process if no affected parties ask for a public hearing. Most annexations in River Road have historically used the expedited process. Annexations in Santa Clara have usually had a public hearing at the Boundary Commission due to a request by the Santa Clara Water District. The Boundary Commission has recently begun to hold hearings for any annexation in River Road and Santa Clara if a street segment is included in the request. Only in a Boundary Commission area can a city have non-contiguous area. A majority of annexations in both River Road and Santa Clara have used this provision and are currently non-contiguous with the main body of the city. There have been attempts in previous Oregon legislative sessions to dissolve the Lane County Boundary Commission. Several members of the local delegation and newly-elected Lane County Commissioner Fleenor have indicated interest in reviewing this issue again this year. If the Boundary Commission is dissolved, annexations to the City would be processed by the City under ORS 222. ORS 222 does not contain provisions for either expedited processes or non-contiguous annexations. If the Boundary Commission is dissolved, the City would need to revise its code to be consistent with ORS 222. This would require a public hearing and the approval of an ordinance by the City Council for each annexation. Under the current Eugene code, this would also likely require public hearings at the Planning Commission. City staff would be responsible for doing the staff notes, preparing the ordinances and necessary findings, advertising the public hearings, staffing the public hearings and notifying the required local and state agencies. The City has been averaging 25 annexations per year for the last six years with about 40% of these in the River Road area, 40% in the Santa Clara area and 20% in the rest of the city. It would be a significant increase in Planning Division staff workload and a significant increase in City Council agenda time to process these annexations. Street Annexations Another issue that has been discussed in the community in the past few years has been the addition of street right-of-way to privately initiated annexations. Staff has previously provided two memoranda describing the process for staff review of right-of-way annexation requests. These memos are included as Attachments D and E. The Santa Clara and River Road Community Organizations have also recently sent letters to the Mayor and City Council providing their prospective on this issue. These letters are attachments F and G. In summary, staff requests the addition of right-of-way to some voluntary annexation proposals when it believes that urban service delivery will be improved and simplified by having the City provide services rather than a mixture of the City, County and special districts. It is seen as a part of the transition to City services. Most urban services are provided on, under, or via the street rights-of-way, including police, fire and emergency medical transport, water, wastewater, stormwater and electric services. The concern over the inclusion of street rights-of-way stems from the possibility of forming “islands” of unincorporated property surrounded by land inside the city limits. Under State law (ORS 222.750), when territory not within a city is surrounded by the corporate boundaries of the city, it is within the power and authority of that city to annex such territory. Annexation by a city under this section shall be by ordinance or resolution subject to referendum, with or without the consent of any owner of property within the territory or resident in the territory. Some residents feel that this provision or the threat of the L:\CMO\2007 Council Agendas\M070124\S070124B.doc