About 100 Thurston County residents will soon call Lacey home

Rolf Boone
·2 min read

About 100 Thurston County residents will soon call Lacey home after the City Council voted Thursday to advance a proposed annexation.

The official name of the city-initiated petition to annex is called the Lake Lois Pacific Avenue annexation, an area of unincorporated Thurston County located east of Carpenter Road, west of Kinwood Street, north of the Woodland Trail and south of the Aldea Glen neighborhood.

The area is home to 46 dwelling units and about 100 residents, said planning manager Ryan Andrews.

Lake Lois Park is already in the city, but the larger body of water east of Carpenter Road — and this may come as a surprise to some — is not.

The purpose of the annexation is to “eliminate an illogical boundary, and to shore up the boundary to make the eastern edge of the city limits consistent along Kinwood Street,” Andrews told the council.

Andrew’s presentation on the annexation was part of a public hearing, although no one testified and no one submitted written comment, he said.

Still, residents participated in a forum last month, asking questions about taxes, fees and services, Andrews said. There were two areas of concerns for residents: Whether their property taxes would go up and whether they would have to connect to city sewer.

Connecting to sewer is not a condition of annexation and property taxes don’t necessarily rise because of it, Andrews said.

One key service change is that Lacey police will replace Thurston County Sheriff’s Office deputies. The city estimates the area will generate an additional 100-200 911 calls per year for Lacey police, he said.

Andrews also pointed out that the city doesn’t expect to gain a lot of new revenue from the annexation, partly because the city already owns 11 parcels within the annexation site and four parcels are owned by churches.

Thursday’s vote now sends the proposed annexation to the Thurston County Boundary Review Board for review. The City Council is expected to make the annexation official during the first quarter of 2022.