Annexation talks top news in Palmer during 2002

PALMER -- The city of Palmer continued work on paving streets, rebuilding its utilities, and planning for parks and recreation facilities in 2002, but the biggest story in Palmer came as the city worked on much more fundamental question -- how far should the city boundaries extend?

In December the State of Alaska Local Boundary Commission came to city hall to find some answers to that question. In the end the commission approved most of Palmer's 921-acre annexation petition, but in a move that surprised city officials, the five-member commission voted four-to-one to leave part of the Bailey Hill neighborhood out of city limits.

"Emotions overran common sense on [Bailey Hill] … It got wrapped around the axle on sewer and water and fire service," Mayor Jim Cooper said the next day. "That's OK though. We got 90-plus percent of our annexation approved and we did well."

The Bailey Hill property owners told the commissioners they didn't have any need for city services. They said their neighborhood has good water wells and they maintain the short streets that they have with their own money. Most of the neighborhood also has city-owned fire hydrants close by, just across the city limits boundary, so they benefit from lowered fire insurance rates on their homes.

Still, the Alaskan system for creating local boundaries frustrated some. The rules that created the boundary commission were hammered out at the state constitutional convention in 1955.

Historians note that the framers of the state constitution, having had experience with a territorial government controlled from Washington D.C., wanted to encourage maximum local government control over day-to-day governmental activities that affect citizens. But to make sure that boundaries weren't drawn up by either locally elected or statewide politicians, the framers created an independent commission to act as a third party when reviewing boundaries.

When the commission met in Palmer, city officials and the property owners who were included in the proposed new boundary squared off as adversaries, each side arguing their case before the commission. In an argument that has been repeated time and again since statehood, Bailey Hill property owner John Nolin asked a fundamental question -- why don't property owners get to vote on this?

"It seems like you're kind of shoving it down our throats," Nolin said. "Has anybody ever thought of having a vote of the people who are affected by this? I thought that was how democracy was supposed to work."

City council member John Combs told the commission that the city was simply trying to extend its reach to include logical boundaries, and that Palmer's planing and zoning regulations protect the community from land-use issues that arise with population growth. Combs also implied that Palmer could do that better than the Mat-Su Borough.

"Commercial and industrial concerns in areas with little or no zoning have frequently demonstrated a lack of concern for their impact on adjacent neighborhoods," Combs said in a pre-written statement. He then said the strip development between Wasilla and Houston along the Parks Highway was "no better than a permanent flea market."

In the end, Nolin and his neighbors were kept out of the annexation plan, which will be forwarded to the Alaska Legislature this year for their approval. The legislature can reject the plan through a simple majority vote in both the state House of Representative and the Senate. If the legislature does nothing, the Palmer plan will pass.