Palmer growth on tap

Proposed annexation would triple size of city

September 19, 2006

By LEILA KHEIRY/Frontiersman

PALMER - The city of Palmer is moving forward with an annexation plan that would triple the size of the city, increase the population by about 65 percent, and require 20 more city employees and new facilities.

The Palmer City Council is scheduled to meet in public session at 7 p.m. Tuesday to discuss the proposed plan.

At the council's most recent meeting on Sept. 12, Palmer City Manger Tom Healy presented a report detailing the effects of annexation.

Healy said the plan calls for the city to annex 14.75 square miles, which would increase the city's current 5 square miles by about 300 percent. The new area is home to 3,520 people, which would increase the city's population from 5,380 to about 8,900, he said.

While the taxes from the new land and population base would benefit the city, there would be new expenses associated with annexation as well.

Healy said the miles of road for which Palmer would be responsible would increase about 90 percent, from 38 to 72 miles. The Mat-Su Borough takes care of those roads now, he said, and contractors plow snow, grade roads, perform winter sanding and summer dust control, sweep roads, control vegetation, and maintain ditches and drainage. Borough work crews thaw culverts in the spring, pave, seal cracks, patch potholes, maintain signs and more.

The city's police force also would be in charge of a larger area, he said, as would the rest of the city's personnel.

Healy estimated that, to take care of the services for the proposed annexed area in addition to the current city's needs, the city would have to hire an assistant manager, a planning technician, a deputy city clerk, three clerical assistants, six patrol officers, a road maintenance foreman, two equipment operators, two laborers, a mechanic, a building inspector and new firefighters and maintenance personnel for the fire department.

In all, Healy wrote in a report to the council, approximately 20 new employees would be needed, which would be a 28 percent increase over the current city payroll.

More employees would mean a need for more space, and Healy estimated that more office and storage space would be needed by the administration, police and public works departments, and a new fire station likely would have to be built.

Although council members didn't discuss Healy's presentation on Sept. 12 - saving their comments and questions for Tuesday's special meeting - some residents of the proposed annexation area spoke against the plan.

Tony Cox, who lives in the Crimson View subdivision, is part of that area's property owners' association. He said he distributed a survey to the 46 homes in his subdivision and got 31 responses - 24 of which were opposed to becoming part of the city of Palmer.

Cox said that represents a majority of residents, and asked the council to consider those residents' wishes.

&#8220Please, keep us outside the boundaries,” he said.

Sarah Mayfield, also of Crimson View subdivision, said if her area were annexed her taxes would increase significantly, including taxes on utilities, which she said never was mentioned to her by any public official.

According to the city's Web site, the city plans to send its annexation petition to the state Local Boundary Commission in February. After that, the state would review the plan, write a public report and schedule a public hearing on the proposed annexation.

The LBC then would be required to submit a recommendation within the first 10 days of the 2008 legislative session for legislators' approval. After that, the state would have to obtain clearance from the U.S. Justice Department &#8220to ensure that no one becomes disenfranchised from their voting rights,” according to the Palmer Web site.

Under that schedule, annexation would become final in spring or summer of 2008.

For more information about the annexation plan, interested people can visit the city of Palmer Web site at www.cityofpalmer.org and click on the link entitled &#8220annexation information.”

Contact Leila Kheiry at

352-2270 or at leila.kheiry@ frontiersman.com