It’s all well and good to have firm rules, particularly where land-use regulations are concerned. But in the case of Port Orchard’s on-again, off-again annexation of McCormick East, a little communication between governmental agencies could have saved the city’s taxpayers a few bucks it’s being forced to spend just so the county can be a stickler about its regulations.

In keeping with Kitsap County’s stated desire to have its three major incorporated cities annex their entire Urban Growth Areas within the next five years, Port Orchard has been moving aggressively, including a decision last fall to annex 110 acres of mostly undeveloped land situated just west of Glenwood Road SW and north and south of McCormick Woods Drive SW.

What made an otherwise routine transaction problematic, however, is that the parcel abuts a narrow strip of land that would be surrounded on three sides by the city if the annexation is approved.

Which it won’t be anytime soon, given that the county announced in January it would challenge the annexation before the Boundary Review Board, based on rules that discourage annexations that create unnatural or irregular borders.

Again, the rule makes perfect sense, but the county commissioners knew what Port Orchard had in mind when the city council was contemplating annexing the land in the first place.

Couldn’t someone over there — South Kitsap Commissioner Charlotte Garrido, we’re looking at you — have picked up the phone and mentioned that the deal as proposed would be challenged?

Port Orchard Mayor Lary Coppola accuses the county of hypocrisy — on the one hand urging the city to incorporate and then challenging it on a technicality.

He may have a point, but at the very least the county showed utter contempt for the city and its taxpayers, who have to pick up the tab for a boundary appeal that could have been avoided.