Commissioners review proposed urban growth boundary, debate annexation impacts on fire, schools and roads

Commissioner Billy Slater said the county's comprehensive growth policy coordinating committee voted to recommend a new urban growth boundary and an annexation interlocal agreement that would, among other things, commit municipalities not to pursue referendum annexation outside the agreed growth boundary.

The measure matters because it would change how municipalities and the county handle future annexations: county officials said the draft agreement removes referendum annexation as a repeated source of litigation and adds language requiring cities to take responsibility for roads they annex.

Slater, the commissioner who presented the committee's work, told the commission that the committee concluded its second public hearing and recommended both a revised boundary map and an interlocal agreement. "At the conclusion of the second public hearing, the committee voted to recommend a new urban growth boundary and an annexation interlocal agreement, which states the municipalities agreed not to pursue annexation by referendum outside its growth boundaries," Slater said.