Lockport council rejects 'forced annexations'

LOCKPORT -- The city council on Wednesday rejected a second round of annexations proposed for properties entirely bounded by city limits, or by Lockport and other public entities.

The city instead intends to negotiate with the property owners and reach annexation deals. The unincorporated properties are in Lockport and Homer townships.

The prospect of "forced annexation," as opponents termed it, had generated strong opposition, and the council this week decided to drop the mandatory annexation component.

On Monday, Alderman Dick Van Dyke proposed that the city drop the mandatory annexation component for the first list of properties, and the council approved his motion.

But Wednesday, the council had to meet again to address a second list of proposed annexations, following up on Monday's initial list. The council followed the same course as they did Monday.

"The council and I have been talking to the homeowners who will be affected by the annexations," Trivedi said Thursday. "We finally reached consensus that their concerns are valid, and we need to work with the individuals in our community."

"As we have a caring program for the city of Lockport, we believe we need to sit down with them and then see where we can go," Trivedi said.

In all, the city was considering annexing 58 wholly bounded properties. Many of the involved property owners opposed being annexed and feared the city would annex them without providing city water and sewer services.

Barbara McCarthy addressed the council this week and mentioned the potential lack of services.

"I don't need these additional charges placed on me, when I am not getting any additional services or anything brought to me as a result of the additional taxes," she said.

At Monday's meeting, City Attorney Ron Caneva discussed the issue.

"We do have boundary agreements with all our neighboring communities, so we pretty well know what parcels of property are going to be within our municipality and what parcels are going to be outside our municipality," Caneva said.

One of the primary reasons for doing this is Lockport's facility planning area, he said.

"For the people we are considering annexing tonight, all that property is in what's called our (facility planning area)," Caneva said. "When we expand our treatment plant, we have to take you into consideration for the capacity of our plant."