The City of Chehalis has taken a significant step toward a potential annexation of its urban growth area (UGA).
During their Monday, April 28, meeting, city councilors voted unanimously to proceed with annexation negotiations with Lewis County. While Resolution No. 4-2025 includes a map of potential areas to be annexed, it does not declare annexation outright, but gives the city the opportunity to sit down with the county to address an issue that the council has focused on for several years.
“It doesn’t determine that we’re actually annexing. It doesn’t determine the areas that we’re actually annexing,” City Manager Stacy Denham said. “This just provides you with the authority to negotiate with the county and other entities about annexation. It very well may not look like this at the end of the day when the actual annexation actually occurs.”
Denham added that the resolution starts the process of putting up community notices and having community meetings on potential annexation before it is determined that annexation will occur.
He said the resolution cleans up a couple of factors, as well.
“It removes certain areas out of our UGA because they were either put in inappropriately or it’s not an area that we should even be annexing, like half properties,” he said.
According to the city’s agenda report for the resolution, residents and business owners in the UGA have concerns with higher utility fees than those inside the current city boundaries, and they don’t feel like they have representation on local government for these projects. Additionally, the city does not receive the one-time sales tax for new construction projects or any real estate excise taxes in the UGA which would be used to add or maintain its utilities infrastructure. Those funds currently go to Lewis County.
The city and Lewis County have been working toward amending the 2006 interlocal agreement governing the UGA for a couple of years, but the passage of House Bill 5290 required that it be completed in a shorter timeframe and with additional modifications. The agenda report states that UGAs should be developed to urban standards, which puts a costly burden on the county if not annexed into a city to maintain this level of service.
Councilor John Six asked Denham about the costs of annexation, to which the city manager responded he has a “high-level view of what it will be” but said it wouldn’t be appropriate to make public since his numbers are not completely accurate as of yet.
“Some of the numbers are very difficult to come up with. It was surprising how difficult it was,” Denham said. “We do have some high-level numbers already. You’ll have those before too long and well before the time to make decisions and before any kind of annexation. You’ll be well apprised ahead of time.”
The map in the agenda packet shows a north annexation plan and a south annexation plan. The north plan depicts potential annexation areas northeast of the Yard Birds Shopping Center, immediately east of South Market Boulevard and Safeway, and southeast of Chehalis Middle School and Olympic Elementary School.
The south plan shows potential annexation heading southbound on Jackson Highway down to the Newaukum River. The full maps can be viewed on pages 123 and 124 of the council’s agenda report at https://tinyurl.com/4b8tmdj8.
