The Planning Division is requesting the City Council conduct a public hearing and consider a Resolution to Exclude Property described as Tract 81-A, Certificate of Survey 2165, in the Briarwood Planned Unit Development (PUD). The deannexation would result in about 13.82 acres of undeveloped land being taken out of the City on the southern edge of the Briarwood PUD. Petitioners and property owners James and Stella Ziegler have signed the attached petition to request this property be deannexed. A 20-day public comment period beginning April 12 was legally noticed on April 12 and April 19. No comments have been received as of April 25, 2012. City staff has reviewed this deannexation request and supports the deannexation of this property.

The City Council may:
• Approve the Resolution to Exclude Property to deannex the subject property; or
• Not approve the Resolution to Exclude Property and not deannex the subject property.

This property was intended to be developed in the City for residential uses and has been providing City tax and assessment revenue even as undeveloped land for the past 10 years.  The tax year 2011 taxes and assessments equal $2,323, most of which is City storm and street maintenance revenue that will be lost if the property is deannexed.  It is within the City's Limits of Annexation designated for annexation into the City within the next 5 years. This means that the City could deannex the property now and be petitioned to annex the property again at any time.

The Planning Division is requesting the City Council conduct a public hearing and consider a Resolution to Exclude Property described described as Tract 81-A, Certificate of Survey 2165, in the Briarwood Planned Unit Development (PUD). The deannexation would result in about 13.82 acres of undeveloped land being taken out of the City on the southern edge of the Briarwood PUD. The zoning under the Briarwood PUD would remain in place on the property as the Briarwood PUD was created in the County originally and not rezoned when the property was brought into the City.

Staff has reviewed this deannexation petition and finds that the requested deannexation meets the criteria in the City's Deannexation Policy for deannexation. The requested deannexation is consistent with the City’s Deannexation Policy in that:

• The property is currently adjacent only on the north side to the acceptable limits of annexation as defined on the most recent update of the Limits of Annexation Map.
• The property is not encumbered with any improvement district.
• The property is only adjacent to public right-of-way where Dumbarton Road intersects the property at the northeast corner. No road right-of-way is dedicated or constructed on the parcel. 
• The property is not currently connected to City water, wastewater, or storm drainage facilities, and cannot connect to these facilities without a significant expenditure of personal or public funds. However, the City would be able to serve the subject property from existing water and sewer lines in Dumbarton Road. There are no stormwater facilities in the area of this property and a system would have to be provided if the property were developed to meet the City standards. While costs to provide services to the property could be significant, this 13 acre property was originally planned to be developed under the Briarwood PUD for about 30 single-family residential lots.
• The property is located on the outer perimeter of the City limits and upon exclusion of the property will not result in a parcel wholly surrounded by City limits.

From a service standpoint, City staff did not have any significant concerns with deannexation of the property since it has not yet been developed. Comments from the City Police, Fire, Public Works, and  Planning departments expressed no significant impacts to their services if the property were deannexed. Other departments did not provide comments on the deannexation request. The Fire Department did point out that this property will fall under the Blue Creek Volunteer Fire Department if it is deannexed as it is not within the Billings Urban Fire Service Area in this area of the County.

The property owner petitioning to deannex is the primary stakeholder in this process. The City has followed the procedures for deannexation as per 7-2-48 of the MCA, including advertising and allowing for a 20-day comment period on the deannexation request prior to conducting a public hearing on the request. The Planning Division has not received any public comment aside from the information submitted by the property owner for this deannexation request. 

This deannexation petition is in alignment with all of the deannexation critera as set out in the City's Deannexation Policy and this is discussed in more detail in the Background Section of this report.