Boonville’s voters will have the opportunity Tuesday to cast a ballot for the future of this community. At issue is the question of a 1,400 acre annexation along Boonville’s Hwy. 87 corridor. The area also includes the Jackson Road and Rankin Mill Road areas.
This is the last of the three main corridors into Boonville to be enveloped into city auspices, and doing so will give townsfolk, property owners and future developers the benefit of working with municipal infrastructure, having a voice in responsible development of the area and establishing a vision for the city’s future.
This is not something the city has rushed in to. In December 2006, the city council unanimously directed city staff to study the issues and make a recommendation for growing the city limits. After countless hours of research, public hearings, public forums and meetings with individual stakeholders, the matter now lies in the hands of the voters.
Because this is the second vote on the measure, a two-thirds majority of those eligible to vote on it is required for its passage. It will be on the ballots for city voters and residents in the affected area.
At the August Primary Election, the issue failed by just three votes. While we can’t know what those people were thinking who voted against it, we hope their thought process was not aligned with the black and gold “No Annexation” signs and flyers that appeared last week.
This campaign is paid for by Chris Holliday, who lives in Prairie Home and who has been instrumental in development south of Boonville at the Village of Windsor of Place.
Chris says he is not against Boonville and in fact is for Boonville and wants to see the city grow and thrive.
So what does the “Fix Boonville First” statement on his signs mean?
Well, Chris said he’s heard that there are people that live in Boonville who don’t have city sewer.
A quick call to city hall reveals that the city allocated more than $700,000 to provide sewer service to about 34 households in the city limits. City crews have been working their way down that list, contacting the residents and making arrangements to get the work done. “Some don’t want to be on city sewer,” said Megan McGuire, Boonville’s city planner.
Seems that issue is fixed.
And Chris knows that growth is important, with municipal services being a key factor for developers. He admits that ideally, the county would have some sort of minimal zoning to prevent undesirable neighbors bringing down property values.
Boonville’s voters will have the opportunity Tuesday to cast a ballot for the future of this community. At issue is the question of a 1,400 acre annexation along Boonville’s Hwy. 87 corridor. The area also includes the Jackson Road and Rankin Mill Road areas.
This is the last of the three main corridors into Boonville to be enveloped into city auspices, and doing so will give townsfolk, property owners and future developers the benefit of working with municipal infrastructure, having a voice in responsible development of the area and establishing a vision for the city’s future.
This is not something the city has rushed in to. In December 2006, the city council unanimously directed city staff to study the issues and make a recommendation for growing the city limits. After countless hours of research, public hearings, public forums and meetings with individual stakeholders, the matter now lies in the hands of the voters.
Because this is the second vote on the measure, a two-thirds majority of those eligible to vote on it is required for its passage. It will be on the ballots for city voters and residents in the affected area.
At the August Primary Election, the issue failed by just three votes. While we can’t know what those people were thinking who voted against it, we hope their thought process was not aligned with the black and gold “No Annexation” signs and flyers that appeared last week.
This campaign is paid for by Chris Holliday, who lives in Prairie Home and who has been instrumental in development south of Boonville at the Village of Windsor of Place.
Chris says he is not against Boonville and in fact is for Boonville and wants to see the city grow and thrive.
So what does the “Fix Boonville First” statement on his signs mean?
Well, Chris said he’s heard that there are people that live in Boonville who don’t have city sewer.
A quick call to city hall reveals that the city allocated more than $700,000 to provide sewer service to about 34 households in the city limits. City crews have been working their way down that list, contacting the residents and making arrangements to get the work done. “Some don’t want to be on city sewer,” said Megan McGuire, Boonville’s city planner.
Seems that issue is fixed.
And Chris knows that growth is important, with municipal services being a key factor for developers. He admits that ideally, the county would have some sort of minimal zoning to prevent undesirable neighbors bringing down property values.
The reasons for annexing are wide and varied. In addition to zoning protection, annexing will provide increased developable land in the city limits to accommodate land use trends and development patterns with eye to the future, and municipal revenue planning.
Let’s look at Boonville’s developable land, especially in terms of what is suitable for housing.
Fully 27 percent of Boonville’s undeveloped land is unlikely to develop for a variety of reasons – topography, the Missouri River or the Interstate – leaving just 16 percent (746 acres) with development potential. Of this, city studies show that almost half is best suited for commercial or industrial uses based on proximity to major transportation routes and adjacency to similarly land use properties. The land that could be used for residential is generally located in areas that, while they could be developed, are not likely to be developed in a large-scale manner due to lack of easy access, difficulty in extending utilities or topographical challenges.
So, why is this a problem?
According to city building inspector reports, there were 185 new single family homes built in Boonville between January 2000 and December 2007 – that’s an average of 23 per year. The city has approved nine subdivisions in the last 12 years with 375 lots platted. In 2007, the physical inventory of lots remaining showed at most 106 – enough for about three to four years at the current rate of building.
According to the Cooper County assessor, there were 108 new single family homes built within a two mile radius of Boonville’s city limits between 2001 and 2005. That’s 22 per year.
It seems reasonable to assume the people living in these county homes are part of Boonville as they likely shop, recreate and perhaps work in Boonville.
It also seems reasonable to assume that people will continue to want to live in Boonville: we’re a small town with good schools and an active, diverse community, we’re minutes from Columbia and we’re in the middle of the state, not far from the attractions of Kansas City and St. Louis.
From the business perspective, there have been 21 commercial structures built within the two mile radius of Boonville city limits in the last five years, with 15 of those built on Hwy. 87 and the immediate area.
This number of commercial buildings just outside the city limits is nearly equal to those constructed within the city: in the last five years, 23 commercial building permits were issued by Boonville’s building inspection department.
This appears to show what we know: Boonville is a good place to live and do business. Families seem to know this, too: enrollment figures for Boonville’s schools show a 10.8 percent growth from the 2001-02 school year through 2006-07. That must be why voters approved a $12 million bond issue in April 2007 to build a new primary school.
Involuntary annexation such as this one proposed by the City of Boonville requires a plan to bring city services to the annexed area within 36 months. The plan has to meet with court approval after voters approve the measure.
The city’s plan shows there will be a $11.4 million one-time capital infrastructure cost to bring sewer, water, street, lighting and other improvements to the annexed area.
Of this, $2.4 million will be paid with cash accumulated in the first 2-3 years from April 1, 2008.
The remaining $9 million debt will be paid back over 20 years with $750,000 in annual payments from Boonville’s gaming monies.
With financing by property taxes, franchises taxes and sales taxes from the approximate 110 residences and 15 commercial properties in the area, the annual $63,500 annual operating cost would be paid, therefore breaking even.
But this doesn’t mean taxes increase for these folks, in fact, they will go down. The city’s tax rate is 5.9582 while the county property tax rate is 6.1603.
The plan is strong, comprehensive and well-thought out. It deserves our support.
