Houston annexation talk ruffles feathers

BIG LAKE — A miscommunication last week about annexation rumblings in the Mat-Su Borough’s least-populous city set some of its neighbors on edge, especially those hoping to form a city of their own.

“It’s really freaked a lot of people out. People are pretty concerned that Houston is annexing portions of Big Lake, basically,” said Seth Kelley, past president of the Big Lake Community Council and current head of an effort to incorporate Big Lake as a city.

He said the proposed boundaries of that would-be city include a portion that Houston also is eyeing. But it’s just a segment along the proposed borough rail line to Point MacKenzie and not nearly as much land as he’d first heard.

The way Big Lake heard it first was that Houston wanted to annex everything from its western edge to Cook Inlet, swallowing up Big Lake, Knik and maybe even chunks of Fairview Loop.

But rest easy. That is not what Houston is considering, according to Houston Mayor Virgie Thompson.

“I don’t want all of that, are you kidding?” she said.

Both she and Kelley put the blame for the miscommunication at the feet of Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss, who mentioned the annexation at a Big Lake Community Council meeting. DeVilbiss has since corrected the record in correspondence with Big Lake community members.

So what is the plan? Actually, Thompson said she’s not entirely sure.

“Other than a resolution to proceed from the (Knik Tribal) Council, there’s no legal description of the properties or exactly how much they want to annex,” she said.

Her understanding, though, is that its tribal lands are in the Horseshoe Lake area and are adjacent to lands that are currently within Houston’s city limits.

“What I get out of it pretty much is that they just want to be able to develop a relationship with the city in hopes maybe in the future of providing some of the infrastructure as this area continues to grow,” she said.

Knik Tribal Council did not respond by deadline to requests for information.

Thompson said that since the area is uninhabited, the question of whether to annex it could be settled at the city council table. She said she’s waiting for that additional information about the exact proposal before she takes the question to her council.

As for a city of Big Lake, Kelley said the tribal council and others in similar situations can decide whether to go with Houston or Big Lake or neither.

“Given the increase in signatures that we’re getting, I think people want to be a Big lake city instead of a city of Houston,” he said.

He said organizers of that effort are shooting to place a Big Lake incorporation question on the ballot in October and are collecting signatures — at community council meetings, at stores in the East Lake Mall and online at biglakecity.com — to accomplish that. If it doesn’t happen for October the other options are a special election — which the state prefers it not be — or wait until October 2014.

And while the signature gathering is going well, Kelley said it’s not for certain that the fall election is an attainable goal.

“It’s going to be really tight,” he said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.