Othello council accepts annexation request

OTHELLO — A request to annex about 750 acres into the city of Othello along Bench Road will be considered by the Othello City Council. Council members voted to allow Skone and Connors Partners LLC to move forward with its request at its July 22 council meeting.

Council members voted 5-0 to accept the annexation request, and in a separate motion set some stipulations for zoning in the proposed annexation area.

Mayor Shawn Logan said it was part of a lengthy process, with clarification still to come.

“It’s a transition. You’re talking about a transition. And again, this transition all isn’t taking place tonight, it’s just starting tonight,” Logan said.

Skone and Connors is proposing to develop about 247 acres between West Bench Road and Hampton Road as housing, according to a presentation from Community Development Director Anne Henning. But that property is at the end of the proposed annexation zone furthest from existing city limits.

Enough property owners living between the Skone and Connors property and the existing city limits signed a petition for annexation to allow submission of the petition. Henning wrote that the annexation would increase the city’s land area by about 20%.

Henning said once the annexation petition is accepted, it can’t be enlarged, although it could be reduced.

Once the council accepts the petition, if they choose to, the people requesting the annexation are required to file a second request. The second one must have the signatures of property owners representing 60% of the value of the land within the annexation area.

Currently, most of the land within the proposed annexation area is farmland, and in an extended discussion council members asked about land use, since city zoning doesn’t allow for farming. Henning said that council members could stipulate that existing land use could be allowed as a non-conforming use. The council voted to make that stipulation.

Once the proponents submit a request that meets the 60% land value threshold, city officials will sponsor a public hearing on the proposal, including the boundary and the zoning.