{"id":18647,"date":"2024-11-22T02:30:40","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T07:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/?p=18647"},"modified":"2024-11-22T02:31:21","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T07:31:21","slug":"annexations-are-empty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/22\/annexations-are-empty\/","title":{"rendered":"Annexations Are Empty Growth with Headaches Ahead\u200b"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Annexations Are Empty Growth with Headaches Ahead<\/span><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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11.22.2024 \/ Essay\/ Brad King<\/u><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Originally published here<\/a> <\/span>on November 16th.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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For the last 75 years, standard success for cities has been shown by growth. If the city wasn\u2019t expanding, it wasn\u2019t successful. The housing market crash of 2008, bringing on the Great Recession, saw some communities change how they defined success, however. Part of that redefinition was rightsizing their municipal footprint to meet their changing population, usually decreasing. While some cities attempted to demolish their way to right-size, others de-annexed areas of their city. The cost of municipal services and the pursuit of capacity saw expanding city boundaries, but lost prosperity among existing residents. In recent years, I have taken to advocating locally for the Strong Towns approach to investment, which includes thickening up the existing city before expanding its boundaries. That is to redevelop areas that already have infrastructure with infill development. That\u2019s why, when I watched the November 2024 Muncie City Council meeting<\/a><\/span>, I was quite surprised to see not one, but four annexation<\/span><\/a> proposals with many \u201cexcited\u201d to see the city \u201cgrow.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Annexation is when a city acts to change the municipal boundary to envelop contiguous land into the city. De-annexation is just what it sounds like, the opposite of that; when a city changes its boundaries to exclude land once in the city. Annexation has been a way for cities to meet that \u201cgrowth equals success\u201d mindset but that success is almost always fleeting. The reasons often given for annexation include increased tax base, sharing the cost of public services, providing improved public services (as cities usually have more robust public services than unincorporated areas), and long-term stability.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Unfortunately, the reasoning for these specific annexations around Muncie was left wanting. For one area, the Muncie Redevelopment Commission already owned an agricultural field immediately next to the annexation site and the potential for new housing development served as part of the catalyst. There was a\u00a0<\/span>financial plan<\/a><\/span>\u00a0submitted along with the proposed annexations, as mandated by the State Code. It addressed the property tax burden the existing residents of the proposed annexation areas could expect to be brought into the city. It also addresses any additional costs in city non-capital services and city capital services by asking department heads. Unsurprisingly, not one department head said these annexations would increase any non-capital service costs. For one annexation area, there was to be a connector road installed, and estimated an additional $150,000 in costs. The approximately 2.2 miles of public roadway was estimated to take only $20,530 to maintain in the first year. That only comes to $10,240 a mile but I\u2019m sure that pothole on your street still isn\u2019t repaired.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The reasoning behind the no increase for non-capital services stems from the fact that Muncie police, fire, EMS, and the Muncie Sanitary District (trash, sanitation, stormwater) already serve the areas to be annexed. Even the supposed new housing development in a cornfield, next to one of the annexation areas doesn\u2019t appear to be drastic enough to cause a significant impact on the permitting office. So, it must be a simple decision, we already have and provide the services to these areas, so why not bring them into the city? It\u2019s not going to burden those existing residents with increased property or income taxes. But what about the other existing residents in Muncie? Are they going to prosper from this \u201cgrowth?\u201d<\/span><\/p>

On its face, the argument that existing public services already serve these areas and therefore would not require increased costs after annexation seems valid, but it is overly simplistic and ignores the many realities in Muncie today. Public services at a certain level cover a certain capacity of people and area, however, those services do not grow on a one-to-one basis or aren\u2019t directly scaled.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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“Proposed Annex Areas.” Ordinances have been introduced to City Council and will be voted on again December 2nd.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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What I mean is, Muncie\u2019s Fire Department with 100 firefighters can handle the city\u2019s area when there are about 70,000 residents. When the number of residents increases to 70,001, or the area increases by one square acre, MFD doesn\u2019t grow by one firefighter or one piece of equipment.\u00a0<\/span>The 100-firefighter threshold is good enough to handle over 70,000 residents in 28 square miles but at some point, it will not be and before that capacity is reached MFD will need to grow to the next threshold. If Muncie were to grow towards 100,000 residents and 38 square miles, MFD would need to increase the number of firefighters and the number of equipment and vehicles. Public safety departments increase their staffing by tens, not one or two personnel and you cannot build and purchase half of a fire truck.<\/span><\/p>

Chuck Marohn (the founder and president of\u00a0<\/span>Strong Towns<\/a><\/span>\u00a0with decades of experience as a land use planner and civil engineer) describes this threshold or plateau growth rate better than I can. He does so by using a water storage tank as an example: \u201cIt\u2019s even simpler to illustrate in terms of a water tower. A tower has a certain amount of storage capacity. It can provide service to a finite mix of commercial and residential property. Go over that finite amount and you\u2019ll need to build another complete water tower. You can\u2019t build a quarter of a tower or half a tower; it\u2019s all or nothing. The capacity you have left in your water tower is your spare capacity.\u201c\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

If you\u2019re a fellow Munsonian, think about that last sentence. In essence, it is saying that the unused capacity in public systems is that system\u2019s ability to take on growth. I don\u2019t know about you, but I live in a neighborhood where neighbors get to hear, besides being told they live in the wrong neighborhood, the police just do not have the capacity to handle every call. And if you\u2019ve lived in Muncie for longer than 4 years, you know we have a history of fire and police battling the city administration for more firefighters and officers. In fact, I can\u2019t recall a time living in Muncie, where either said they didn\u2019t need more staff, equipment, or facilities. Yet in that fiscal plan for the annexations, both departments claimed they have the capacity to cover these areas because they already are. I wonder if residents in these areas with half-a-million-dollar gross-assessed valued homes get the same level of police service as residents in the southside and near-downtown areas.<\/span><\/p>

Those neighborhoods to be annexed already have roads, curbs, storm drains, and sanitation lines; and as the fiscal plan stated the Muncie Sanitary District is already serving these areas. (The Muncie Sanitary District is a special taxing unit that does not share the same boundaries as the city of Muncie or Center Township.) Just like providing non-capital services like public safety is expensive, so is maintaining streets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Muncie does not repair every section of the public right-of-way today. When citizens ask why their road or street didn\u2019t get repaired, the city (no matter the administration) usually says something along the lines of not being able to fix every mile of city roadway. Or more simply, they lack the financial capacity to do so. That means every year more repairs are needed than can be addressed and so repairs begin to accumulate. Without the city sharing ongoing costs of current repairs, current repairs occurring, and repairs needed, it is near impossible to determine the amount in either area, distance, or cost of accumulated repairs. However, even without those figures, one thing is apparent, Muncie as we live, and as we operate does not generate enough revenue to pay for all the services required; and in fact, that amount is in deficit to the demand.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

While the fiscal plan goes over the net assessed value of these properties, it does so to explain how the property owners\u2019 tax bill will not be increased by this annexation (never mind that property tax caps work on gross assessed value). It does not attempt to do any calculation to show the public investment needed to keep up this newly annexed public responsibility. The net property tax revenue from all proposed annexed areas using the 2023 pay 2024 property tax bill and the distribution rates of tax revenue to multiple public agencies is about $242,000 a year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

There is approximately 900 feet of new road needed to connect the annexed area to a potential housing development. The fiscal plan for the annexation states the estimate for that connector road to be approximately $150,000. Let\u2019s estimate the life expectancy for low-traffic road surfaced with asphalt is about 20 years even though we see our roads resurfaced more frequently.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

$ 150,000 \/ 20 years = $ 7,500 a year<\/span><\/em><\/p>

The plan says there are approximately 4.4 lane miles of road in the areas to be annexed and estimates for the first year it will cost approximately $5,000 a lane mile to maintain. It is estimated to take about $20,000 a year to maintain the roads of the new annexed areas. Property tax revenue pays for more than just infrastructure, it must pay for public staffing, public safety, public debt, and a whole host of government incidentals. Let\u2019s say that only 5% of property tax revenue goes toward the $20,000 road repairs and the $7,500 per year for the new connector road. How much do these annexations need to generate to pay for these roads?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

$ 27,500 \/ 0.05 = $550,000<\/span><\/em><\/p>

If only 5% of property tax revenue goes directly toward road repair and the annual cost for the connector road, these annexations wouldn\u2019t be worth enough to cover the cost. This simple calculation doesn\u2019t take into effect the cost of other public services, the fact service delivery tends to be more expensive to deliver to the periphery of the city, or that infrastructure maintenance costs rise more quickly than inflation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

That calculation also doesn\u2019t contribute to addressing the City\u2019s accumulated road repairs year after year and with approximately 350 lane miles the City could quickly accumulate more backlog repair. While these additions are only about 4.4 lane miles, they only add to the potential backlog of repairs and potentially create more inequity in public service delivery.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

As most most streets in Muncie have approximately the same cost to build, maintain, and service (there are no dirt roads in Muncie with lower costs, nor do Muncie households rely on septic whose financial burden is private), the lower the density, the fewer the people paying for any particular mile of infrastructure. Lower density also equates to longer 911 response times and less productivity for other services such as trash or code enforcement. Lower density also means slower travel times for all modes of transportation. While it may be obvious that the longer a distance, the more time it will take to walk or bike somewhere, it also means parents need to spend more time transporting kids, and that transit service is infeasible for anyone who cannot drive. Further, development that is only based on driving is not self-serving. Higher density means safe travel speeds in populated areas and faster travel speeds in the country where population is sparse. Sprawl development means traveling fast enough to not be safe or comfortable, but not fast enough to get anywhere expediently.<\/span><\/p>

The two neighborhoods total area is 110 acres, 140 parcels, which generates about $427,000 in gross assessed value per acre and $4,600 in annual property taxes per acre. The areas are suburbs to Muncie lying on the periphery of the city (hence annexation). The two areas total about 264 residents resulting in a density of 2.4 people per acre. It is interesting to compare that performance to an existing dense residential area in 47305. One acre in a near-downtown residential area consists of 8 parcels with 20 residents. That same 8 parcel, 20 resident acre generates about $450,000 in gross assessed value and $6,200 in annual property taxes per acre. That downtown neighborhood totals 180 acres with 1600 residents (a density of 8.9 residents per acre) but has poor public infrastructure and struggles with appropriate police response. This is the neighborhood the city doesn\u2019t have the current capacity to serve and yet it out performs the proposed areas to be annexed in annual gross assessed value per acre and property taxes per acre.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Speaking of density, the\u00a0<\/span>Together DM plan<\/a><\/span>\u00a0calls for a focus away from sprawl, and to lay the foundation for higher density areas. It demonstrates where there is the highest demand and most private action in housing is \u2013 in suburbs like the areas considered for annexation \u2013 and in areas where there is low housing demand it calls for public intervention \u2013 in downtown neighborhoods that outperform suburbs in terms of gross assessed value per acre and property taxes per acre.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Muncie has existing neighborhoods that outperform these suburbs with existing streets that cannot be maintained annually. If existing neighborhoods cannot attract new residents or retain existing citizens, then investment is needed there, where there is a higher return. Today, Muncie cannot generate the revenue needed to maintain its existing built footprint resulting in needed repairs accumulating annually. The municipal practices have not improved the prosperity of current residents; which in turn leads to a leveling off or declining investment in property which keeps values low or even depressed. Annexations have to make more than sense; they must make dollars, not just for new residents but the existing ones too. If they cannot reasonably pay for their foreseeable long-term public costs, then they will contribute to the accumulation of repairs by being deferred themselves or in other areas as they receive disproportionate attention than denser, core neighborhoods with greater value per acre.<\/span><\/p>

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Brad King is\u00a0<\/em>a long time community advocate who previously served as Muncie’s\u00a0<\/em>Historic Preservation Officer.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Brad King is\u00a0<\/em>a long time community advocate who previously served as Muncie’s\u00a0<\/em>Historic Preservation Officer.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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SHARE<\/a><\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Annexations Are Empty Growth with Headaches Ahead 11.22.2024 \/ Essay\/ Brad King Originally published here on November 16th. For the last 75 years, standard success for cities has been shown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18647"}],"version-history":[{"count":116,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19034,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18647\/revisions\/19034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}