Property owners near La Crescent weighing options over potential forced annexation

Some neighbors of a pending development outside of La Crescent can hardly believe what’s happening to them.

The La Crescent city council last week voted in favor of a preliminary development agreement for a project that could see 75 homes build on a property off of County Hwy. 6.

That, however, could mean dozens of other properties will be forced to pay for utilities to go to that development.

A legal challenge is one possibility, thinks Jeff Miller. He is among the neighbors who could be forced to annex into the city and pay $27,000 for city water hook-ups under a development agreement.

“It just seems very odd the legalities of it, that they’re able to force people to pay for somebody else’s (development),” Miller said. “Yes, we’ll benefit from it and we could hook up in the near future, but that will be on our tab.”

Miller did say he’s been told he won’t have to pay that $27,000 utility assessment right away … but faces a forced annexation into the city, which means he’ll have to pay that plus interest, eventually.

Miller suggested to us today that the only recourse for him and dozens of other property owners might be to sue the city to avoid eventual forced annexation.