POULSBO — Despite a loud chorus of landowners opposed to joining Poulsbo, city council members approved the annexation of 133.82 acres east of Noll Road by a 5-2 vote Wednesday night.

“I love the city of Poulsbo but, frankly, I don’t want to join,” Rebecca Erickson told the council as she asked that her property be excluded from the Alexander/Johnson Annexation, which is bordered by Mesford Road to the north, Noll Road to the east, Heron Pond Lane to the south and Poulsbo Elementary School to the west.

With cities including Bainbridge Island, Maple Valley and Bothell challenging the state’s Growth Management Act, the city shouldn’t be in a hurry to annex land, Erickson said.

“The whole annexation process is inherently unfair. I didn’t vote for you people,” Erickson said. “I don’t have any recourse against you people.”

Removing Erickson’s property from the annexation would create an “island,” which is essentially unannexed property that is virtually surrounded by city boundaries, Associate Planner Edie Berghoff told the council.

Byron Harris, who was the contact person for the original annexation of only 31 acres, expressed his concerns about leaving any of the properties in the annexation out.

“It will interrupt the contiguous flow and development and will make it piecemeal,” Harris said. “It may take some time to get it back in the city.”

Richard Andis, who lives just east of Poulsbo Elementary, said access onto Noll Road at 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. is already difficult and an additional development in the area would only exacerbate the problem.

“It’s difficult, if not impossible, to get out there and I can’t imagine adding 50 more cars to the mix,” Andis said.

Instead of having five homes per acre as mandated by the GMA, residents should be able to ease into the city, he suggested.

“I don’t have any problem with the people who want to be annexed, it’s the people who don’t,” Andis said.

In addressing the residents’ concerns, Councilman Dale Rudolph said annexation allows for development, but it doesn’t prescribe it.

“The city doesn’t build houses and it has no intention of building 25 houses in your neighborhood,” Rudolph said.

Being annexed into the city won’t change the current state of anyone’s property, he added.

“If you own 1.25 acres or 25 acres in this annexation, you have the right to keep your land the way it is,” he said.

The issue is whether those opposed to the annexation should be able to prevent their neighbors from developing their properties, he said.

“You are trying to restrict their rights to develop their property,” Rudolph said.

The council is between the proverbial rock and a hard place, said Councilwoman Connie Lord, who, along with Councilwoman Kimberlee Crowder, voted against the annexation.

The city has an obligation to annex the land within its UGA because it was set aside for that purpose, Lord said as she expressed her empathy to those wanting to preserve the area’s rural feel.

“If the land doesn’t warrant development, it won’t be developed,” Lord assured those opposed to the annexation. “There will be ample opportunity to fight additional development whether it be in a wetland or other critical area.”

Councilman Jim Henry said he remembers the fight over the area during the city’s UGA negotiations with the county.

“If they had voted unilaterally, it wouldn’t have been included,” Henry said. “We have to work with what we have.”