It didn’t take long for involuntary annexation to come back to the forefront of discussion for the Platte City Board of Aldermen.
The board is primed to reintroduce another annexation proposal, this one remarkably similar geographically to the one that was just pulled off the November ballot as a result of a settlement in a lawsuit that alleged the city violated the state’s open meetings law when it held the first reading on its annexation ordinances on June 7.
The newest proposal–set to be approved by the aldermen at a special meeting to be held Wednesday at 7 p.m., past deadline for this issue of The Landmark–contains roughly 4,900 acres, compared to about 6,500 acres under the previous proposal.
Changes of significance in the targeted areas this time around are the deletion of land owned by the Missouri Department of Conservation north and east of the city and a couple of private properties in that same area that will not be able to be annexed by the city because without the conservation ground, those private areas no longer meet the contiguous requirement.
In addition, those private properties, including land tracts owned by Stinnett Construction and by McKay and Kathy Perry, are in the process of being annexed in a friendly manner by the City of Tracy. The Perry property is a prime spot for commercial development near Interstate 29 at the Tracy exit.
Also, Platte City’s new plan adds about 100 acres in what has been known as Area A of the former proposal. Those 100 acres are at the southwest corner of NW 136th St and Hwy. N, Moody said, involving property owned by Gary Hanman and Jim Plunkett, just south of the current city limits.
The proposed schedule is to put the annexation issues on the February ballot.
A public hearing on the proposed annexation is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 14 at the Platte City Civic Center. City administrator Keith Moody said a new plan of intent will need to be developed and made public, and it will include much the same information as the previous plan.
The plan would need to be approved by a majority of the citizens of Platte City and those residing in the proposed annexation area along Interstate 29 near Tracy.
At a regular meeting of the aldermen Tuesday night, the new annexation resolutions and ordinances were listed on the agenda but were pulled at the last minute. Moody said the last-minute postponement was due to an error in the legal description of property targeted for annexation.
“A legal description attached to the ordinance is not correct,” Moody told The Landmark immediately after Tuesday’s postponement.
Aldermen moved to set the special meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, after posting the agenda for 24 hours per the Missouri Sunshine Law.
Platte City’s previous proposal drew fierce opposition from many landowners and developers, prior to it being withdrawn as a result of the Sunshine lawsuit settlement. Platte City paid more than $12,000 to the attorneys for the plaintiff as part of the settlement of that lawsuit in addition to agreeing to pull the issues off the November ballot.