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City Impact Area: County Decision

 


Impact Area

A city is required to have an impact area surrounding the city's boundaries within the unincorporated county. The impact area allows the county, city, and property owners to plan for possible or probable land development. 

Residents of the impact area are not in the city limits, but they can have the benefit of having a proportional number of impact area residents serving on the city's planning and zoning commission, giving them a voice in any future development.

Any landowner who wishes to develop their property within the impact area deals with the county as usual; however, as we strive to consolidate development--saving, as we can, more farm and other ag and open land--the land owner is required to follow the basic development ordinances laid out in the city code with the intent that the land being developed in the impact area will eventually become part of the city (annexation).

One of the main issues with county land development is water protection and water rights. If a landowner wishes to develop their property, we'd want the commercial and/or housing units to be serviced by city utilities rather than have a bunch of new individual wells punched into the aquifer and separate septic systems spread across the property. We have some of the best water in the state and thus in the country. New development needs to be carefully planned to protect that water for all residents of the area, old and new.

As far as water rights are concerned, land owners in the impact area (and in the city limits) maintain their water rights until such time as they wish to develop their property and connect to city water and wastewater services. At this point, in most cases, the water rights would be turned over to the city so it could adequately serve the development. (There are some less common situations where different water right agreements could be worked out with the city.)

Also, the county and city need to ensure they have an efficient and reasonable transportation plan that accounts for current and future possible growth. Impact area agreements are vital for good transportation coordination.

Generally, what this means is that if a property owner in the impact area develops their property commercially or residentially, they will need to be annexed into the city at that point so that they can connect to city water and wastewater services as well as road maintenance and other services. Residents in the impact area do not pay city taxes.

If a property owner--in the area of impact or not--requests annexation into the city, they can leave their property undeveloped or leave their property as farm or agricultural use until as such time they wish to do something else with their property.

Sugar City's Impact Area

Sugar City applied for a new impact area agreement with the county. During the public hearing of the city's proposal, there was a lot of public comment, which is always good. The county commissioners took another month or so to come to their decision. They returned with a rough map showing the impact area that they decided upon. That is the map at the top of this post. The black marker outlines the county's decision for the impact area. (They used a slightly outdated map for some reason, but it works.)

The area the county decided on is significantly smaller than what the city proposed. In a split vote, the city council voted to accept the county's map despite members of the council being concerned that the county's map is insufficient and doesn't seem to account for the desire of the large majority of the Salem residents to have the entire Salem townsite included in the Sugar City impact area. Many Salem residents are concerned that the impact area splits the townsite in half and leaves the western area open to possible future action from Rexburg.

I voted to accept the county's map. I think the area of impact will need to be adjusted going forward, and our current ordinance requires us to review it at least every 5 years, though with the current growth projections in Madison County, I assume we'll review it annually or even more often than that. I thought the county's action was worth accepting and moving forward from there.

Once the impact area map is officially in place, a Salem resident who lives in the impact area will become a voting member of Sugar City's Planning and Zoning Commission. We were hoping to have two Salem residents on the P&Z, but the county didn't adopt the entirety of the Salem townsite, so for now, there will be one.

I thank all the city and county residents who participated in this impact area adjustment process. Our impact area, percentage wise, is smaller than the impact areas of our neighbor cities, including Rexburg. There will be more impact area and annexation decisions in the immediate and near future, I'm sure.

 


 

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