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Commissioners want cities to pay for what they annex By ALBERTO ENRIQUEZ The Jackson County Board of Commissioners has sent a message to cities in Jackson County expressing concern about the impact of city annexations on adjacent county roads. Attached to the letter is a somewhat blunter new board policy. It states that cities should include the full right-of-way of county roads within their proposed annexations or risk recommended denials of their annexation boundary. "It's not a shot across the bow," Board Chairman Ric Holt said. "It's not intended whatsoever as a threat. We've got a problem, and we've got to solve it -- that's the bottom line. (The new policy) is a gesture to bring the importance of the situation to everyone's attention." The situation is that cities in Oregon aren't required to annex roads. Sometimes, they can annex land on both sides of a road, leaving the road -- and perpetual maintenance bills -- under county jurisdiction for years. County public works director Joe Strahl says this occasionally includes roads deep within city jurisdiction. One such example is Medford's Highland Drive, which the city assumed jurisdiction of only last year, after the county paid to bring the road surface up to urban standards. Strahl says the new board order shouldn't hamper annexations. The county now spends about $300,000 annually in jurisdictional transfer payments, and proposes to increase these payments to $500,000 annually, accelerating the pace of roads brought up to urban standards. Jim Bennett, Central Point city administrator, says if pavement alone could bring a road to urban standards, such transfer payments might suffice. But it's what's left out of the bargain that could prove a crushing expense to cities, which must install curbs, gutters, sidewalks and storm drains, he says. "It's a drop in the bucket compared to urban standards," Bennett says of the county payments. "The amount the county is willing to contribute is in the 25 to 30 percent range on average -- in some places less. Road surface? Well, whoopee." Bennett says Central Point alone could face unanticipated costs of hundreds of thousands, or millions, of dollars if forced to annex roads immediately. That kind of money may be available in cases where a deep-pocketed developer is planning an entirely new development. It's much harder to come by when an area is already partly developed and no developer is in sight, he said. "I'm sure they want some resolution, or they wouldn't have upped the ante like this," Bennett said. "It has the potential to act as a chilling effect on annexation." But Trish Daniels, a spokeswoman for the Department of Land Conservation and Development, said the county's order appeared to have little teeth. "The county can't unilaterally change the language in (urban growth boundary management agreements)," Daniels said. "The county can comment negatively if it likes, but it can't keep the cities from annexing." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA