Jefferson County city leaders have banded together to encourage Gov. Mike Kehoe to throw out a portion of a bill to limit annexation in the county.
City mayors, councils and boards of aldermen have sent letters to Kehoe, requesting that he either veto or remove a section of House Bill 2818 that would change annexation procedures for cities.
“This proposal represents a significant departure from local control and community-driven decision-making,” said a letter signed by Crystal City Mayor Mike Osher, which is similar to letters sent by other county mayors.
“Municipalities exist because residents choose to govern themselves locally, based on their own priorities, needs and growth strategies. HB 2818 undermines that principle by significantly limiting a city’s ability to make critical development decisions.”
The letter asks Kehoe to oppose and veto HB 2818.
The Missouri House and Senate each passed HB 2818 and sent it to the governor’s office on May 28. The bill originally only requested to allow the city of St. Joseph to annex a city-owned airport that is not within the city’s limits or contiguous to its borders.
The bill was sponsored by state Rep. Brenda Shields, R-St. Joseph, who represents District 11 in Buchanan County.
However, before the Legislature passed the bill and sent it to the governor’s office, two amendments were added to set new rules for annexation in Jefferson and St. Charles counties.
The bill says Jefferson County cities, towns and villages would only be allowed to annex land if 25 percent of the property is contiguous with its border, and cities, towns and villages would only be allowed to annex property once every two years.
The bill’s restriction for St. Charles County only limits annexation by requiring 18 percent of property be contiguous with a city, town or village.
“It is bad for the cities with singling out Jefferson County,” Byrnes Mill Mayor Rob Kiczenski said. “It is very targeted. It limits our ability to annex when you can only do one annexation every two years. You would really have to think through what you are annexing in because you would be precluded from doing anything else for two years.”
The bill would go into effect on Aug. 28, if Kehoe signs or does not sign the bill. He also may veto it.
Arnold Mayor Bill Moritz said Kehoe can sever the provision about Jefferson County from the bill. He also said if the governor passes the bill with the restrictions placed on Jefferson County annexation, the mayors have discussed challenging it in court.
“If it does pass, we will get together as a group of Jefferson County cities and sue for its removal,” Moritz said. “That is preliminary, but that is what we are thinking about doing. I am doing what is in the best interest of Arnold and all of the cities in Jefferson County. We are working on this as a team effort.”
Herculaneum Mayor Ryan Wright said the mayors are working to arrange a meeting with Kehoe to ask him to veto the bill or remove the Jefferson County annexation restrictions. Wright also said he supports filing a lawsuit if the bill is passed.
“Every city in Jefferson County is against it,” Wright said. “I feel like we were singled out, and it will stunt our growth, not just the cities but the county.
“We are prepared for litigation,” he said. “We are hoping it doesn’t come to that. We are hoping the governor sees how bad this would be for Jefferson County. We will take every option we can legally to protect our residents and economic development.”
State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, who represents District 22, said she worked with state Sen. Nick Schroer, R-O’Fallon, who represents District 2, to add the amendments for Jefferson and St. Charles counties to the bill.
District 22 takes in roughly the northern half of Jefferson County, and District 2 covers south-central St. Charles County.
Coleman said the Jefferson County annexation rules in the bill reflect Senate Bill 1344, which she filed to create a boundary commission in Jefferson County.
“(Senate Bill 1344) ended up not getting very much traction,” Coleman said. “It didn’t need to because Nick Schroer had a similar bill. I worked with Nick’s office to get language that would be in line with what St. Charles and Jefferson County are experiencing. Nick’s bill ended up not moving but it fit under the title, so he amended Brenda’s bill in committee to include language for Jefferson and St. Charles counties.”
Coleman said the annexation rules for Jefferson County in House Bill 2818 are in line with the county’s master plan, which calls for the creation of a boundary commission.
“This is a no-brainer to me because there is a master plan that had a lot of comments and was adopted by the County Council,” Coleman said. “It seemed easy to say yes, I am happy to move this policy forward.”
Coleman said she doesn’t believe the annexation restriction would stunt growth in Jefferson County. She said the two-year wait between annexing property would provide time to plan for things such as runoff water, emergency services accessibility and traffic volume would be handled for developing areas.
“I think this is a really sensible pro-growth policy,” she said. “I think it is in line with what the master plan calls for which is making sure we are supporting growth in a really thoughtful way that isn’t locking it or stopping it.”
Osher said the two-year wait between annexing property would hinder growth. He said an example of how the rule would stop growth is the James Hardie Industries manufacturing plant that is being built on the former Festus Municipal Airport site in Crystal City.
The facility, off Airport Road, is expected to generate about 230 jobs.
As the project developed, Osher said, it was discovered an additional parcel was needed after the initial annexation. If the two-year waiting period existed, he said, the deal might have fallen apart.
“In order to bring the factory and hundreds of jobs to Jefferson County, their footprint changed, and we had to annex another section of land,” Osher said. “We would not have been able to do that, and it would have cost that project.”
Most of the mayors met with Jefferson County Executive Dennis Gannon on May 27 to discuss their opposition to the bill. Gannon said the county executive needs to protect Jefferson County from losing land to cities, but he also opposes the bill because it does not allow cities to grow.
He also said there are times, such as with the James Hardie project, that annexation is beneficial for both a city and the county.
Gannon said he plans to send a letter to Kehoe supporting the cities and asking for the annexation restrictions not to be put in place.
“I understand and support the cities,” he said. “My big opposition is it stifles their ability to manage their growth how they see fit. Our cities need to grow, and annexation can help them grow properly, if you do it right.”
Most mayors said they or members of their cities’ staff were not contacted by legislators about the annexation restrictions being part of the bill.
“Our state representatives, none of them, said anything to us,” Pevely Mayor Steve Markus said. “I am really disappointed.”
De Soto Mayor Kathy Smith said she was dumbfounded when she found out about the proposed annexation restrictions.
“I can’t quite understand why they would even want to do such a thing,” she said. “I hope it is vetoed. It will not help our towns. It is going against us.”