We are starting the 2020 summer campaign for the annexation of Canterwood to the City of Gig Harbor. This year, we are focusing on residents connected to STEP systems, and hope that we can offer them a real dialogue with the two STEP Boards. Last year, the two STEP Boards essentially said that the 2016 Annexation Study spoke for their position, end of story, and that they were not interested in meeting to discuss the ownership and operation of the STEP systems.
To a reasonable, detached Canterwood STEP member/resident, this will seem strange in view of the following point: the stunning reversal by the Canterwood HOA of a now 25-year accepted premise – they would assume responsibility for oversight of the STEP systems once the Canterwood Development Company dissolved. Under the direction of John Morrison as General Manager of Canterwood during the formative period of Canterwood, every resident agreeing to the purchase of a STEP lot or house was told that annexation to the City of Gig Harbor was the future. At such time as the Development Company ceased to exist, the Canterwood HOA would assume responsibility for the STEP systems. We are guessing that the STEP Boards have not notified their members that the HOA was overtly rejecting all STEP responsibility.
If we had seen the future as the HOA and Canterwood Board declare it today, we should have said: “Be advised that you will be expected to pay your standard monthly HOA payment that now excludes the planned-for back up support for your STEP systems.” We should also have pointed out that:
1) Washington law states that only a public entity can manage a STEP system (RCW 90.48.110 and WAC 173-240-104);
2) The City of Gig Harbor clearly agreed to annex Canterwood when it was completed (now the HOA Board misrepresents the residents’ interest and allows the Gig Harbor City Council to renege on the numerous written agreements to annex Canterwood); and
3) STEP members were told that their system would be managed and maintained by the City of Gig Harbor after annexation.
As a STEP member, you are increasingly isolated and forced to take sole responsibility for a complex, integrated STEP system that ultimately should be the responsibility of the City of Gig Harbor to operate and maintain. To add insult to these injuries, the STEP systems’ owners are paying over $100,000 in sewer utility rate surcharges each year to the City of Gig Harbor, which was explicitly required by the City as a financial inducement for Canterwood to annex to the City. Since 2008, when the City denied Canterwood’s petition to annex, this amount has now reached over $1,200,000 paid to the City of Gig Harbor, which should have remained in the pockets of the STEP members!
Confronted with all of these facts, we would hope that the two STEP Boards would be willing to meet with Michael Wilson, former City Administrator of the City of Gig Harbor, and John Morrison to discuss these critical details and work toward a STEP system and annexation plan that is in the best interest of Canterwood STEP owners and residents.
For more details on the STEP system and annexation to the City of Gig Harbor, we encourage you to visit our website www.annexcanterwood.org