Hey, neighbor, welcome to town

A recent discussion about the Houston Police Department drew out an interesting statistic: Houston is 24 square miles big. The biggest city in the Valley. It also has the fewest residents, 1,650, by the city’s count. That’s about 68 people per square mile.

So it’s a pretty safe bet there won’t be a lot of talk about annexing neighbors in Houston’s near future.

That can’t be said about Palmer or Wasilla.

By comparison, Palmer is the smallest city with 5.2 square miles and a population estimated at 5,500. That’s about 1,057 people per square mile. Then there’s Wasilla with about 7,000 people in 13 square miles for 538 people per square mile.

By contrast, and some may find this amazing, Anchorage is about 1,960 square miles and has an estimated population of 280,000, about 142 people per square mile, A third less than Wasilla. Seems a little more crowded than that doesn’t it? And people there say there’s no place to grow, hence the rapid population expansion out here.

Palmer has been aching to expand its city limits for some time now, one attempt failing a few years ago. But city officials there, the majority at least, see annexation as the only way to survive. Mayor John Combs has said many times there’s simply no place to put anymore people or businesses in the small confines allowed.

Wasilla is a little better off, but the city is also eyeing property beyond its borders. It’s not a stretch to imagine that someday the respective city limits will meet somewhere around Trunk Road. Palmer already provides services to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. It’s not crazy to think the city might want to follow that pipeline in its plans to grow.

In the middle are people who are content to pay for borough services while enjoying the amenities Palmer and Wasilla have to offer: ballfields, shopping and entertainment, state and borough offices, plowed streets, skateparks, you name it.

What the two cities have in front of them is the sales pitch to the residents who will see their taxes go up and question how their lives will be improved when the tentacles of annexation creep down their road.

The cities will cite police protection as a main gain. Sewer and water service will be improved and maintained not by the homeowner, but by the city.

Right now, outlanders have to drill and maintain wells and make sure the septic gets pumped when needed. State troopers provide excellent service, but they are spread far and wide in the far-flung borough. So having a cop living next door or down the street does have an air of security.

For the most part, city streets get plowed promptly, trash is hauled away every week and when the tap is turned, good, clean water comes out.

For those services, though, the new city residents will pay fees and taxes.

Sooner than anyone thinks, outlanders will be asked to vote and there will be many meetings where they can argue the status quo and the cities can cite their attributes.

Let the land rush begin.