Extraterritorial Zoning To Get Legislative Hearing Tomorrow

• January 23, 2009

Tomorrow at the North Dakota state legislature there will be a hearing on the extraterritorial zoning issue at 9:00am.
For the uninitiated, extraterritorial zoning is the practice where cities expand their regulatory authority to areas bordering the city limits. This is done in the name of planning, but it has really gotten out of hand. Cities are burdening property owners who have no representation in city government with fees and regulations while simultaneously robbing the counties and townships outside of the cities of revenue generated by things like building permits. And the planning excuse seems a little absurd once you realize that, given current municipal growth rates, some of the areas currently being zoned by the cities wouldn’t be reached by those cities for another century or so.
Here’s a video production from the North Dakota Policy Council explaining the issue:

It’s not a good situation, and it’s a practice that needs to be ended.
There is a bill in the state senate that would require the cities and counties/townships to form committee to address planning and regulation of these areas, but I think that solution needlessly complicates what should be a simple issue. As far as I’m concerned, a piece of property is either within the regulatory zone of a municipality (inside city limits) or it’s part of a township or country (as the case may be). Thrusting the property owners in these disputed areas into a gray area where they’re being regulated both by the counties/townships and the cities (where, again, they have no political representation) is hardly a good solution.
Anyone interested in this issue should attend the hearing mentioned above. Or, in lieu of attending, should contact their legislators and let them know about the issue.

Tags: Domestic Issues, North Dakota News, Politics

http://Array tom

This needs to be fixed but I am afraid it will have a tough time getting out of committee. Every member of the Government and Veterans Affair are from the following cities,Bismarck,Minot, Fargo,Mandan and Devils Lake. No rural legislators.
jimmypop

this is all because of the growth of fargo. as the video shows, nobody else is growing enough to make a difference. you have three ways to look at this;

1 -have nothing and either screw current land owners or force tax payers/ future property owners to pay for the mistakes of those land owners/ developers make outside city limits (this happened in west fargo… the city had to rebuild a road because land owners could not afford to do it to meet code and the city council gave in. i would have felt sorry for them, but I would have put the stamp on the $40,000 assessment notice to each $100,000 home owner myself.

2 -have et area as is (force land owners to build logically and to code) or

3 -have the cities annex the land (and you think these people hate the et area? wait until they have to pay CITY taxes not county taxes.).

my answer;
I think you need to reduce the et size and commit to NOT helping the people that have to be brought up to code when they join a town. Yes, they will be screwed HARD when they are assessed $60,000 on their $140,000 home when they are forced to convert the road they just built 10 years ago to meet city standards, but thats the way it is.

As for money generated by permits in the area south of fargo; How much revenue was generated by ronnings 59 permits in 1998 (i bet little to nothing)? How much was generated with his 10 he gave this year (i bet more than he made on the 59)? Most importantly, ask him where the money goes… its supposed to be used to enforce/ monitor the construction of buildings in his township…. it will make you giggle.

i think garos is wrong. townships cant tax without permission of the state. additionally, you let me know how the meeting goes when a township tries to raise taxes to monitor construction. you just let me know….. the guy that want to add on to his chicken coop will be stunned when his chicken coop has to meet building code. and that there si someone to make sure he has to do it.
pete_fgo

But Rooobbbbb!

If you restrict extraterritorial zoning Fargo will not be able to expand all the way down I29 to the Reservation land where the Sisseton-Wapeton crossed the border. Think of the joys (of paying for right) of claiming “Fargo-ness” denied all those township residents in the way of Fargo’s ultimate sprawl. Residents who never considered how much better their lives will be when the Fargo Imperial Commission decides how plowed the streets must be, if they should build a new school to attract development – just think of the rapture of New Trucks for the street dept.

Don’t deny these county residents the pink bunnies and rainbows doled out for just living in Fargo.
http://suitepotato.blogspot.com/ sayanything-4808

We have something like this in CT, except here it’s simply a matter of zoning and ordinance within a city bordering a neighboring town and screw what the neighboring town doesn’t want and if they don’t like it, let’s meet behind the state capitol and have it out like kids.

Good luck getting a leash on this out there.

SayAnythingBlog.com

Extraterritorial Zoning To Get Legislative Hearing Tomorrow

Create a SAB Readerblog

Recent Comments