There doesn’t appear to be any organized opposition — yet — to Port Orchard’s ambitious annexation program, which got a major boost last week with the announcement that enough McCormick Woods property owners had signed petitions to assure that portion of the plan will proceed.
But it will be interesting to see whether any emerges from the usual “no growth, no how” types.
With respect to McCormick Woods, annexation boosters were required to obtain petitions from property owners representing $285 million of the development’s assessed value of $379 million. They made it with about three-quarters of a million dollars to spare, without even relying on the assistance of the McCormick Land Co. and the South Kitsap School District, both of which own sizable parcels in the development.
“We wanted to be as resident-driven as possible,” said annexation backer Dick Davis. “I’m glad we were able to accomplish this.”
The next step is presenting the petitions to the Kitsap County Assessor’s Office, after which the measure will go to the Port Orchard City Council for approval.
That hearing is scheduled for March 24.
This would be followed by a study by Kitsap County Boundary Review Board and, hopefully, approval by the Kitsap County commissioners by this summer.
Meanwhile, on a parallel track, the city is also toying with the idea of annexing its entire Urban Growth Area in one gulp, which would increase Port Orchard’s size from 1,500 acres and 8,000 residents to 7,200 acres and 30,000 residents.
This could cause grief to some who can’t quite stomach the idea of living in a “big city.” But for all practical purposes, little would change in anyone’s daily lives except the color of the police cars patrolling their neighborhood.
On the plus side, Port Orchard would be transformed overnight from the county’s red-headed stepchild to its biggest municipality — no small matter if you’ve lived here long enough to see the city repeatedly snubbed by its larger neighbors.
Much planning needs to be done to pull it all off, but unless you’re philosophically opposed to change of any sort, Port Orchard has everything to gain and nothing to lose from annexation.
