The Ridgefield City Council approved the annexation of about 54 acres near Carty Road as a pared down version of a prior plan five times the size.
During its Dec. 1 meeting, the council voted unanimously to approve the annexations which include properties along Mueller Road to the north and one on Carty Road to the south.
The approval was the second time the annexations, now included in one item, came before the council. Although discussion was brief at the Dec. 1 meeting, the annexations have been in the works for years and led to the creation of an overarching plan for the area around the southwest end of Carty Road for if and when those properties came within city limits.
The annexation was originally initiated by property owner Ralph Greear in 2019, Ridgefield Community Development Director Claire Lust said. Greear is the co-owner of Lucy’s Garden, a wedding venue and one of the five parcels included in the annexation he filed.
At about the same time, another property owner, Rich Young, also filed an intent to annex his property on the other side of Carty Road.
The city council approved an intent to annex featuring both requests in June 2019, which Lust said was the first step in the annexation process. At the time, the annexation expanded from roughly 60 acres to close to 270, which was intended to create a more logical boundary than a piecemeal annexation would provide.
The council requested that a land use plan for the greater area be developed before moving ahead on the annexation.
“(Council) decided to take a couple of actions to lead to a more holistic planning study and community outreach engagement for the area before either of these annexations moved forward,” Lust said during the council’s Oct. 27 meeting where the annexation petitions were first presented in their final form.
Through community outreach, city staff developed the plan, which was ready to be presented in mid-2020. Given limitations on meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic at the time, staff opted to wait until 2022 to present the plan to the council.
Following a presentation to the council this March, the plan was ultimately approved in late July.
The plan identifies potential land use designations, roadways and other amenities that would be brought to the area following annexation and the desire of property owners to develop. Land annexed into the city in the “sub-area plan,” as it is called by the community development department, has a base zoning of residential at four housing units per acre.
Those properties will also be required to maintain an “urban holding” overlay, a designation that prevents premature development before urban services can be provided to the area.
“The idea here through this process was that once the Carty Road sub-area plan was adopted, there would be an established, shared vision and development guidelines for the whole area,” Lust said.
Property owners in the annexed area have different intentions with what they will do with their land in the short and long term. For Greear, he and his wife plan to connect to city water and sewer infrastructure and to upgrade the event space at Lucy’s Garden, according to meeting minutes from Oct. 27. They kept the potential for platting residential units on the property as a possibility in the longer term.
Other property owners included in the north side annexation said they will potentially plat out an additional residence on their land. For Young’s annexation, he said he does not intend to develop his property, which makes up about half of the 54-acre total in the annexation, nor does he plan to sell the property to a developer in the near future.
