Annexation plans fuel Port Orchard’s future

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, November 19, 2008

t McCormick Woods isn’t the only community that could be brought into city.

The annexation of McCormick Woods into the city of Port Orchard is proceeding rapidly, with more than half of the necessary signatures gathered during the first month of the petition drive.

But while this single action will lead to a 20 percent increase in the population of the city, it’s only one of several such agreements that could transform Port Orchard into a town of 23,000 people by 2025.

In addition to McCormick Woods, the city is also addressing several other annexation proposals. Some are small, like the Jahnke-Beil property west of Mile Hill Drive approved at Tuesday’s meeting. Others are more complicated, such as the Bethel Corridor project that will eventually lead to the annexation of the Fred Meyer property — and provide significant sales tax and property tax revenues to the city.

Port Orchard Mayor Lary Coppola has often expressed the desire to annex as much land as possible, with the eventual goal of filling the entire Urban Growth Area.

Coppola would rather do this sooner than later, since costs are bound to increase. For instance, the latest estimate for the completion of the Bethel Corridor is $25.5 million — in 2006 dollars. Neither the city nor Kitsap County, which has shepherded the project so far, has access to those funds.

The Bethel Corridor project, in fact, has been in development since 1999. During this time it has become more complicated and expensive.

Kitsap County has attempted to develop funding plans throughout and conducted a recent survey of what residents want and what they will pay for.

The results, according to Kitsap County Special Projects Director Eric Baker, are not surprising: People want more than they can afford, and the situation is worsened by current economic conditions.

One of the options, according to Baker, is to create a transportation district that assesses individual tax hikes based on the degree of benefit realized by the individual property. This also has several nuances, including a deferral of costs for senior citizens until the time the property changes hands.

Port Orchard Planning Director James Weaver said the city is encouraging all annexation requests, but is not pursuing specific properties.

Instead, such actions are driven by the property owners.

First, owners of 10 percent of the valued property must submit a petition, followed by a second petition from a 75 percent valuation.

It is then submitted to the Board of Equalization before approval by the city council.

Port Orchard doesn’t receive immediate revenue from an annexation property, as it takes some time for the funding channel to change. Specifically, there is a four year transfer of sales and road fund taxes. Baker said the percentage and timing of the agreement could be negotiated between the city and the county, that would only cover a specific annexation project.

“In a smaller project these numbers would be insignificant,” he said. “But in a case like Fred Meyer, the county’s share could be in the six figures.”

The county is not opposing any annexation efforts, according to Baker.

“County policy is that if it is petition-driven and is supported by the will of the people, we will not oppose it,” he said. “However, we do need to examine what the impact will be on the remainder of the county residents if an area is annexed. For this reason, it is better to annex an entire piece of infrastructure, rather than individual parts. If a road is under different jurisdictions than a particular road project might not get completed.”

Translation: It would be better if Port Orchard could take on the entire Bethel Corridor at once, rather than a piece at a time.

Baker said that he expects the Bethel Corridor project to be completed in the next four years regardless of annexation “because there are a lot of funding opportunities that we will be able to take advantage of.”

While Port Orchard doesn’t have $25 million in its back pocket, it is still in better shape than a lot of other municipalities, according to Weaver. The city is able to operate efficiently, he said, due to a “fiscal conservatism that has been part of the city’s corporate culture for as far back as the records go.”