Lacey council decides annexation of Thompson Place and Tanglewilde can wait

Tanglewilde and Thompson Place will remain in the county and will not be annexed into the City of Lacey anytime soon.

That decision was made this past week when the Lacey City Council and its planning commission held a day-long retreat to look at the subject of annexation.

The primary reason not to look at annexing those 1960-70 era housing developments was – – cost.  A recent study found that costs associated with the annexation would cost the city $1.9 million upfront and up to $3.7 million annually.  Those costs include hiring 14 additional police officers and 4 more city workers to meet the needs of the residents.

The city is looking at changing its annexation policy to make it easier to bring in new development in the future including requiring developers to annex into the city before the city will extend water and sewer service.   Currently the city requires them to agree to annexation sometime in the future.

There is also a bill making its way through the state legislature which will make it easier to annex islands of land within city boundaries such as the Capitol City Golf course area.

The Tanglewilde and Thompson Place area encompasses 1109 acres of land with a population of 6850.  It’s 91 percent residential with an assessed valuation of $525 million.   There are 110 businesses on 70 business lots which did $60 million in taxable sales last year.

The area is part of the Urban Growth Area (UGA) of the City of Lacey and is scheduled to be annexed into the city at some later date in the future according to state law.  That future annexation seems a little further away today.