Centralia will soon kick off annexation to bring a large portion of its urban growth area (UGA) into the city limits.
If all goes according to plan, nearly 2,500 individuals and 1,000 units of housing will be taken into the Centralia city limits.
The Centralia City Council unanimously approved a resolution during a Tuesday night meeting to amend its annexation plans and direct city staff to begin negotiations with Lewis County for annexation.
Resolution 2846 gave the council a final chance to decide exactly what land would become part of the Centralia city limits.
The council ultimately approved taking in much more than originally recommended by the Centralia Planning Commission. The expanded annexation plan should qualify the city for a significant tax break from the state that is intended to incentivise city annexation.
“I'm just a fan of continuity and continuous boundaries that make sense,” Councilor Tucker Voetberg said during council discussion. “It makes sense looking on the map why we would bring these areas into the city limits.”
Centralia Community Development Director Emil Pierson remarked that the city would be taking in most of its urban growth area that it had planned to annex sometime in the next 20 years, with just a few exceptions.
“We are literally bringing in everything that I had in phase one, this little chart, plus you're doing everything but four areas that we looked at for a 20-year time frame,” Pierson said.
Areas slated for annexation are dotted across the city, but the largest areas are on the west side of Interstate 5. Many areas are intended to bring in islands surrounded on most sides by city property or important industry, housing and infrastructure. The city is looking to annex hundreds of acres north of Reynolds Avenue and south of Smith Road, tucked between Interstate 5 and the Chehalis River.
The annexed areas will include the industrial land surrounding the railroad and much of the residential areas around Harrison Avenue as well as land slated for warehouse development in the area.
To the south, the city will look to annex Centralia High School after a request from the school district, as well as the neighborhoods around it and the less developed south of the high school on the northern bank of the Chehalis River.
Pierson added that, to his knowledge, all areas being annexed from the UGA have been there since the city first established the UGA more than 20 years ago. In Washington state, land designated as UGA is meant to be annexed within 20 years of the original designation.
The city originally landed on a phased approach to annexation after a public outreach campaign that started in March of last year. However, after approving that phase one map, the city council during recent council meetings requested city staff to develop a map that would bring in a minimum of 2,000 people into the city.
The 2,000-individual threshold appears to have been a major driver of the decision. A 2023 Washington state law intended to incentivise annexation gives cities that are annexing between 2,000 and 10,000 individuals into their city limits a 0.1% sales tax credit. The money saved from the tax break is intended to go toward aiding annexation, whether that be improving roads, expanding sewer or paying more police officers.
Some city officials did warn the council of the cost of annexation and added that some parts of the city’s UGA may cost more to annex than others, whether that is due to higher population density, the cost of expanding utilities or providing first responder services.
Centralia Police Chief Andy Caldwell chimed in, warning the city council that the proposed annexation of more than 2,000 people would greatly increase calls for the Centralia Police Department and likely come with some growing pains.
“I guarantee you, our department can handle it, but it's going to be a stress on the staff,” Caldwell said. “And that stress, for prolonged periods of time, it can cause problems for us.”
According to Caldwell, the problem lies in the time it takes to hire new police officers. Even if the city has the funding, Caldwell warned, it generally takes more than a year to train new officers and get them up to speed.
Deputy Mayor Kelly Smith Johnston responded to the concerns from staff, recognizing the cost but adding that the cost of annexing certain areas was not a “driving criteria” for her decision.
“I understand the financial aspect, but I also want to be thinking about how we serve the people that are part of our community,” Smith Johnston said. “And if they should be part of our city limits, and if they would have a better quality of life being part of our city limits.”
According to information from the city, residents being annexed into the city limits from the urban growth area should see lower costs. For example, city utilities charge a more than 30% surcharge on utility bills for homes outside of the city limits, a cost that will go away after annexation.
City staff also expect the city of Centralia property tax burden to be lower than that of Lewis County. In response to a question from Smith Johsnton and Mayor Chris Brewer, Pierson also clarified that annexation will not speed the transition from septic tanks to sewer as residents of the urban growth area are already required to connect to sewer if they face septic tank issues. That policy is not expected to change with annexation.
With the map approved by the city council, city staff will now begin drafting an interlocal agreement with Lewis County, which will finalize the transfer of the administration of the land from the county to the city. As part of the process of annexation through interlocal agreement, both the city council and the Lewis County Board of Commissioners will have to approve the final agreement.
The process, in accordance with state law, will also require at least one public hearing in a joint meeting of the two local governments or two hearings in two separate meetings. The process will also come with waiting periods to allow for appeals from residents or junior taxing districts such as school and fire districts to challenge the annexation.
For previous reporting on Centralia annexation and for a peek at the approved annexation map, visit https://tinyurl.com/2hxczhe9.
