Our View: Local boundary agreements would be step in right direction

Talk about it

The City of New Richmond is inching closer to possible boundary agreements with neighboring townships.

Members of the Star Prairie Town Board met in a joint meeting with the New Richmond City Council Monday to discuss details of their proposed agreement.

The Town of Stanton also seems open to such an agreement.

The agreements would set forth specific guidelines for how the city will annex property. The restrictions will allow the city to plan for future growth, and allow the town officials to know what direction the boundaries will or will not expand down the road.

Such boundary agreements are a rare thing in the state. The typical response to a community’s expansion usually follows a predictable pattern:

• The city or village gets a request for annexation.

• The community annexes property that previously was located in the township.

• Township officials and residents get mad because another chunk of their taxable property is gone.

• Townships and nearby communities refuse to talk together because of hard feels generated from years of annexations.

The goal of the boundary agreements being negotiated is for local officials to continue to work together on issues of importance to everyone, even if annexations occur.

By knowing ahead of time what could happen if the city needs to expand, town officials won’t be surprised when annexation plans pop up.

By agreeing to annex in an orderly and pre-planned fashion, the city reduces the number of toes it steps on when they exercise their powers to grow.

It seems like a good plan. We applaud the efforts of elected officials from the townships and city who have stuck with the hard work of hammering agreements.

The history books will look kindly on those who complete the effort for the benefit of the entire community.

Tags: new richmond, opinion, local, boundary, agreements