The city of Vancouver and the Clark Regional Wastewater District are proposing a partnership in line with the city’s 20-year annexation plans, a blueprint of which was adopted three years ago.
“We’re looking at this from a long-term perspective,” said Brian Carlson, the city’s director of public works. “It helps us provide some predictability, consistency and stability.”
To see the city’s 2007 annexation blueprint, go to http://www.cityofvancouver.us/annexation and under the table of contents, click on “Annexation Blueprint (2007)/Interlocal agreement.”
The move doesn’t mean the city has changed the timeline for annexation, Carlson said.
“We’re looking at it from a sewer provider’s standpoint,” he said. “If the city annexed a big area, or a small area, what happens to those customers?”
The district serves people who live in unincorporated Clark County but within the city’s urban growth boundary.
The district’s commissioners and the Vancouver City Council will consider adopting the proposed agreements this month.
The annexation blueprint, adopted in December 2007 by the city council and Clark County commissioners, sets a rough schedule for annexing more than 57 square miles during the next 20 years.
The partnership between the city and the wastewater district “helps answer what happens after annexation,” Carlson said. “It doesn’t make annexation any easier.”
“We didn’t want to make that annexation process any easier or more difficult,” added John Peterson, the district’s general manager.
Carlson said customers would not initially notice a difference.
The partnership calls for district customers to remain with the district after being annexed, and pay a 6 percent fee of about $2 a month to the city. If and when the city annexes at least 60 percent of the area, the entire district would be assumed by the city.
The agreements would preclude Vancouver from biting off smaller annexations as allowed by state law, Peterson said. Piecemeal annexations would be inefficient for both parties, he said.
“It was sort of a death by a thousand cuts,” Peterson said. “Both sides agreed that ‘Let’s just work toward the full merger at the 60 percent point, because that’s more efficient and effective.’”
The agreement would be in effect for 30 years or until the city assumes the entire district.
Last summer, the district sent a letter to customers explaining that a partnership was in the works and had an open house for residents who wanted to learn more.
“A full 93 percent of the district service area exists within the Vancouver Urban Growth Boundary (UGB), and a portion of the district’s flows are sent to Vancouver for treatment. The city has plans over a 20-year (or more) time frame to annex the UGB and eventually transition urban services, such as sewer, to a city function. State law supports that progression, especially as it relates to a special purpose utility such as the district,” the letter said.
“It is important to understand that this framework does not make the annexation process easier; it simply provides a road map for continued sewer service if annexation does happen someday.”
The July 21, 2009, letter was signed by district commissioners Neil Kimsey, Denny Kiggins and Norm Harker.
The district operates two small wastewater systems outside Vancouver’s urban growth boundary, in Hockinson and the Meadow Glade area south of Battle Ground. Those areas could go to Vancouver or the city of Battle Ground, Peterson said.
The district, formed in 1958 and formerly known as the Hazel Dell Sewer District, serves more than 80,000 residents.
Erik Robinson contributed to this story.
