Subject: Letter to Sue Barrett HOA President, Canterwood Annexation Report
Why not have the Canterwood HOA manage the proposed annexation?
Good question requiring some history. The city’s procedure of annexation is for standard neighborhoods that do not have HOAs. It is real straight forward. Five percent of the residents in the area requesting annexation petition the city to start the process. We did this 11 years ago. The city comes up with conditions for annexing, then 50% of the residents must vote affirmatively for it to happen. Unfortunately, at that time the city council was concerned about Canterwood becoming a major conservative block that would have a large say in the future of the city. The HOA Board during that time was made up of active golf club members who were concerned about any impingement on the golf course and the notion that golf carts would be banned from the private streets inside Canterwood. More to the point, the HOA President directly rejected using the former city administrator Mike Wilson to be involved in negotiations with the city. No one who knew anything represented the HOA. No one from the STEP association (the most affected group covering about half the residents) was included. The city hired a consultant who came up with a silly list of expensive requirements which gave the Board the out they were looking for and let the council sandbag the process.
A few years ago annexation was revisited by the Board. They turned the simple process over to a new resident who made it into a small version of a UN study covering land use and political questions. Naturally, they concluded that it was premature to pursue annexation. The HOA board agreed that someday Canterwood should annex, but then was not the time.
Once again, the HOA board did not use anyone with expertise, nor did they get the STEP association involved. Since the Board withdrew the petition in 08, STEP users in Canterwood have paid out at least a million dollars to the city that was not necessary. For an honest and open review of annexation, STEP members personally must be informed, not just Board members.
Why hasn’t the STEP Board initiated annexation, since they would benefit the most?
We do not understand this, but it probably has something do with the same forces motivating the Board. No one, generally speaking, gets elected to either board unless they are an active member of the golf club, for the simple reason it is the only group of any size where people actually are acquainted. A few years ago there was a leader named Alan Weiss who tried a couple of times to get on the Board after he became active on the STEP Board. He organized the STEP association for the first time to deal with all the infiltration problems in the individual systems. Before he unexpectedly died, he was a strong proponent of annexation because he alone understood the dimensions of the STEP system and could not understand why Canterwood would want to keep this large unnecessary responsibility. We have never gotten a clear explanation from the present STEP leader of his position on annexation and the handover of the STEP system to the City, but he is always cordial and takes notes at the meetings.
The only course of action that is impartial is for Mike Wilson to negotiate with the city to come up with a list of requirements for annexation, have as many group meetings as needed, and then see if 50% of the residents are in favor of annexation. The fact is, every resident benefits somewhat and STEP members benefit a lot. You, as new HOA president, in your introductory letter made our point. Canterwood is indeed a small city with no technical staff, just neighbors doing their best. It is clear Canterwood should hand over to the city our big infrastructure responsibilities. At the same time, we enable ourselves to affect city policies in the future.
Who are Mike Wilson and John Morrison?
Mike was the City Administrator for Gig Harbor and John was the General Manager for Canterwood. They worked together to get the sewer line (Step System) to Canterwood and negotiated all the conditions in anticipation of Canterwood becoming part of the city through annexation. They both are working to accomplish annexation. Mike retired this year, so he is committing his time to make it happen. Both feel there was an agreement, clear at the time, that Canterwood would annex to the city and that the city would not create barriers.