POULSBO — Even though the city of Poulsbo has annexed more than half of its Urban Growth Area, questions are now being raised about its ability to serve those who reside in it.

At the June 7 city council meeting, Councilwoman Connie Lord broached the idea of placing a moratorium on future annexations until city staff could determine the city’s ability to provide basic services such as sewer and water in previously annexed areas.

That query led to the council’s public works committee initiating an examination of those issues June 28.

Recently, the council has had several informal discussions about those levels of service and Lord’s point is one that needs to be addressed, Councilman Ed Stern told fellow councilmen Jeff McGinty and Mike Regis.

“We don’t care at the time of annexation until a development hits,” Stern said.

McGinty agreed and said once the city annexes an area it has a legal obligation to provide services even if it means building a new sewer pump station to accommodate the influx of new citizens.

McGinty asked Planning Director Barry Berezowsky and City Engineer Andrzej Kasiniak for their perspectives on the city’s plans to ensure that the obligation is met.

“We have a comprehensive plan that identifies necessary improvements in those areas,” Kasiniak answered.

However, if a development requiring those improvements is ahead of the city’s schedule, the developer will be asked to make the improvements and be reimbursed in the future, he said.

“The best example of this is Olhava,” he said. “Olhava was ahead of us on the Bond Road Pump Station and State Route 305 Force Main.”

Olhava Associates funded the two projects and will be reimbursed through sewer connection fees, Kasiniak said.

Regis pointed out that before the city makes any plans for roads, power lines and other services, it first needs to ensure they mesh with Kitsap County’s plans.

“We’re supposed to sit down with their planning staff and say, ‘What do you see in this area?’ so we don’t contradict,” Regis said. “Ultimately, we could get our Urban Growth Area spread out.”

Berezowsky replied that the city’s planning department has already met with the county on those issues, but said the real issues concern solid waste, schools and police.

“I think with the stuff in the pipeline, we’re OK with the (sewage) capacity issue,” Berezowsky said. “We’ve got half of it and the other half our chief might need to ask for another police officer.”

For those reasons, Stern said, the city needs to understand the potential costs associated with annexations.

“Based on what’s in the (sewer) pipeline we need to keep relating it to what we can afford to do,” he said. “In our case, we’re doing so much by the seat of our pants in general.”

All of the council’s annexation approvals up to this point have fully considered those impacts, Stern said.

To answer those questions without impacting the city staff’s current workload, Berezowsky suggested putting the burden on the property owners requesting annexation.

“We could put the onus on the applicants to do a subarea plan and it would refer to city documents,” he said, adding that the plan would tell the city how much sewer and water capacity the area would need once it is fully built out.

“It’s not going to be something in cement, but it’s going to give us an analysis and it’s not going to cost anything in the long run,” Berezowsky said.