Grand Forks City Council moves forward with annexation of Highway 81 area

Apr. 3—GRAND FORKS — After more than an hour of receiving information from city staff and after hearing a number of comments from affected property owners, the City Council on Monday ultimately decided to move forward with a planned annexation of properties in Falconer Township.

Last

June, council members voted 6-1 to annex a portion of land north of the city

in conjunction with the proposed Fufeng wet corn mill project. Within the properties were businesses along Highway 81. The Fufeng mill has since been stopped after

council members voted to abandon the project

when the Department of the U.S. Air Force in January declared Fufeng a national security threat.

Following the stop of the Fufeng project, several property owners sought to halt the planned annexation via a de-annexation petition.

Technically, the council did not vote Monday to move forward with the annexation because it already made the decision last summer. Rather, council members — with their lack of a vote — simply decided to move forward after determining the petition's requirements were not met.

"The area had already been annexed and then there was a petition for de-annexation and there's a process for that. The requirements for the-annexation have not been met and so there wasn't any motion because there was no need for a motion on de-annexation — the requirements hadn't been met," Council Vice President Bret Weber explained to those in the audience at the end of the meeting.

Four requirements must be met for a de-annexation petition. North Dakota Century Code 40-51.2-04, which deals with exclusion or de-annexation by petition, provides that a petition must be signed by no fewer than three-quarters of qualified electors and by owners of no fewer than three-quarters of assessed value of property of the de-annexation area.

City Attorney Dan Gaustad said the city used the 2022 property values, since the 2023 evaluation aren't done yet.

The statute only applies to lands that have not been platted under either North Dakota Century Code 40-50.1- 01 through 40-50.1-17, which relates to platting of townsites or subdivisions, or under Century Code 57-02-39, which relates to auditor's lots. The statute also only applies to lands where no municipal improvements have been made or constructed in or adjacent to the de-annexation area.

Even if all four requirements were met, the de-annexation decision is ultimately at the discretion of the City Council.

Gaustad said the de-annexation petition isn't valid for various reasons, which city staff presented to council members. One of those reasons is that several of the signatures were either not qualified electors of the city or qualified to sign as an owner of the affected property.

Maureen Storstad, the city's finance director, said the Finance Department received a Petition for Exclusion — meaning de-annexation — to the city on March 6. The Finance Department received additional packets on March 10, 16 and 17. A total of 23 people signed the petition. Of those, 20 are an owner of property and have authority to sign the petition and 13 of the 23 are qualified electors of the city, meaning only 65% of the needed 75% threshold was met.

Another reason for the petition not being valid is that most of the properties listed have been previously platted, according to city staff. City Planner Ryan Brooks said only three parcels within the de-annexation request haven't been platted.

Also, city staff determined that municipal infrastructure is in place, including flood protection and a stormwater pond, which City Engineer Al Grasser presented to the council. Other projects that are set to move forward in the future, and were presented to the council by City Administrator Todd Feland, include a watermain, sanitary sewer and sanitary lift station (lift station 49) and forcemain.

Later in the meeting, council members approved awarding bids to several infrastructure projects in the Highway 81 area, including the watermain, which will provide water service and fire protection to properties in the area. Of the three bids received, Taggart Contracting was the lowest at $1,864,612. The project will be funded through a combination of State Water Commission cost share and State Revolving Fund loans repaid through utility revenues.

Two bids received from RJ Zavoral & Sons for a sanitary sewer project were rejected by the council. Both were over the engineer's estimate.

Council members also approved bids associated with the sanitary lift station including general work to ICS, Inc. in the amount of 3,932,925, mechanical work to McFarlane in the amount of $143,900, electrical work to H&S Electrical Services, LLC in the amount of $304,500 and construction administrative work to WFW in the amount of $291,790. Council members were asked to hold off on accepting bids for the forcemain portion of the project.

Several of those speaking during the public hearing portion of the meeting asked the council to consider de-annexing the area. They also spoke out against a statement Mayor Brandon Bochenski gave to the Herald last week.

In the written statement, which was published as a Viewpoint in the Herald's opinion section, Bochenski reaffirmed his belief that annexation should move forward for properties along Highway 81, and that some property owners in Falconer Township have been receiving a "large discount on their tax burden for decades."

Bochenski also provided the Herald with documents outlining the values of properties in Falconer Township. According to city assessors, those listed properties are valued at only 61% of their true and full value. Those documents were included in Monday's meeting agenda.

One of those speakers was Tony Anderson, the owner of Tony Anderson Construction.

"The county has assessed our properties fairly with a qualified assessor. While we understand inflation has impacted everyone and we are due for an increase we do not condone an unfair assessment and increase," Anderson said during the public comment portion of the meeting.

Anderson said he and others don't want to be part of "what seems to be a punishment by this council and mayor because we saw significant concerns about a Chinese corn mill in our midst."

He asked for a delay on the decision about annexation to allow time to address the property owners' concerns.

"We feel there should not be a vote tonight for annexation at this time," Anderson said.

Craig Spicer, another property owner in the area, also asked for an extension before a final decision.

He said the Fufeng project "has gotten most of the attention and most of the breaks" during the past year.

"We would like the city to show their loyalty to the north-end businesses and provide us with the same luxury. There is no reason you can't stand for us instead of standing for Fufeng on this issue," he said. "We are putting it in your hands."

Council member Rebecca Osowski later made a motion to table any decision on the de-annexation petition. She suggested waiting until a standstill agreement — essentially a 90-day hiatus — with Fufeng ends. Her motion failed due to a lack of a second.

Also Monday, property values within the entire city were discussed by the council. Prior to the City Council meeting, council members met in a Board of Equalization meeting to discuss the property value of residential and commercial properties throughout the city. The council set a public hearing date for the Board of Equalization on May 1.

In other news Monday, council members:

* Engaged in a lengthy conversation on whether to take a stance on library-related bills, House Bill 1205 and Senate Bill 2360. Last week officials with the Grand Forks Public Library voiced their concerns on the bills including the potential of needing to go through the 250,000 items in the library's collection. Council members decided to not take a stance Monday as the bills continue to advance through the Legislature and as both bills have since been further amended.

* Approved a Class 3 (On/Off-Sale Beer & Wine) Alcoholic Beverage License application from the North Dakota Museum of Art.

* Approved a noise variance and the sale of alcoholic beverages during the 2023 Betapalooza event from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. on April 29 in Town Square.

* Awarded the annual maintenance project for asphalt streets to Opp Construction in the amount of $53,725.

Editor's note: This story was updated Tuesday morning to more fully explain bids that were approved during Monday's meeting.