The Clearwater City Council is looking to the future - and that future involves not only the city, but Clearwater Twp. and Lynden Twp.

 

At a workshop Tuesday, members of the council, City Attorney Dave Lenhardt, Engineer Kevin Bittner and Kendra Lindahl of Landform, the city’s planner, discussed potential future annexation options.

 

Lindahl gave an overview, starting with reasons any city might annex land.

 

She said it has the potential to increase tax revenue by adding land for housing, commercial and industrial uses. It can also provide jobs to residents.

 

“But it also gives the city some control over surrounding land uses, not only after they’re annexed, but in the interim when you have an annexation plan in place,” said Lindahl. “The city has some control, potentially, over what’s happening in the township.”

 

Lindahl said under the current annexation agreement with Clearwater Twp., the city can annex property for four reasons: initiation by a landowner, failure of a septic system serving the property, contamination of the primary well and if the property is surrounded on all four sides by property in the city.

 

“You took a pretty conservative stance there,” she told the council. “I’ve seen some annexation agreements that might be a little bit broader.”

 

Also under the existing agreement, the city must a pay a percentage of taxes to Clearwater Twp. for five years following a property’s annexation, and must provide municipal water and sanitary sewer service within three years of annexation.

 

Lindahl said that’s one reason the city has to weigh its options when considering annexation. There are increased services like fire and police protection, more streets to maintain and major infrastructure costs, like expanding water and sewer services. 

 

“Do the benefits outweigh costs?” she asked.

 

One of the issues in the City of Clearwater is space. Lindahl said there are currently five existing vacant parcels. If a developer couldn’t use one of those parcels, what happens? 

 

“When we talk to people who are interested in development, should we be pointing them to land in Clearwater Twp. that could be annexed into the city?” she asked. “There is a lot of land in the annexation area that remains vacant that’s available that could be developed for industrial, commercial and residential.”

 

When the discussion shifted to Lynden Twp., Mayor Pete Edmonson said the city has no current annexation agreement with them and believes the township doesn’t really have any interest in having one.

 

He said in a conversation with one of the township supervisors, he was told if St. Cloud attempted to annex them, they would prefer to be part of Clearwater.

 

Edmonson asked what the city’s options would be with Lynden Twp.

 

City Attorney Dave Lenhardt said from his experience, Clearwater was better off beginning discussions with the township to see how they react to the subject. I’ve been through an annexation war, and that was very contentious, very lengthy and very expensive,” he said.

 

Lenhardt said the city has a number of options. It could form an orderly annexation agreement like it has with Clearwater Twp. Under certain conditions, it could pass an annexation ordinance. And statute allows for a group of landowners to petition to be annexed.

 

“If you can discuss it amicably and if you can reach an agreement, you don’t have to have a formal lengthy or drawn-out annexation agreement,” he said.

 

Lindahl said one strategy would be to talk with landowners in the township who might be interested in the future sale of their land for development. She said even though Lynden Twp. has its own industrial park area, some manufacturers can’t operate using well and septic systems. They need municipal sewer and water.

 

Lenhardt agreed. He said in his experience, annexation was developer-driven.

 

Bittner said it would be a “tough sell”  to ask  existing businesses outside the city to hook up to city water and sewer because of the costs.

 

“It’s very difficult to court those properties unless they want something you have,” he said.

 

Edmonson said that’s something that should be part of the discussions with the townships. He mentioned the existing businesses along Co. Rd. 75 that were built before there was an agreement in place. But if the city wanted to expand further along Co. Rd. 75, how does it deal with those existing businesses?”

 

Councilman Rollie Lange said the selling point is the positive impact on the entire area. 

 

“It’s to help the area grow,” he said. “Everybody benefits from it. There’s more jobs, more incomes. It spirals.”

 

Members of the council agreed to begin by setting up informal meetings with both townships. No meeting dates have been set yet.