City Council Meeting Date: February 18, 2025
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Ben Martig, City Administrator
Title
Consider Resolution Approving Updated Annexation Policy 1.11.
Body
Action Requested:
The Northfield City Council is being asked to approve a Resolution approving updated policy 1.11 Annexation Policy.
Summary Report:
In an effort to standardize Council policy formats and ensure all policies are easily editable, staff recently undertook a comprehensive reorganization and revision of Council policies.
During the review of existing Council policies, staff identified inconsistencies in formatting, instances where documents were not true policies but rather Council staff reports with related actions, outdated information, and a lack of readily available editable (Word) versions. To address these issues, staff decided to completely retype and reformat all Council policies.
Administrative staff developed a standardized format, retyped all documents, and made basic updates such as replacing staff names with titles to minimize the need for future updates due to staff turnover. The revised documents were then passed to the respective departments for further review and refinements. While some Council policies underwent only minor modifications, others required more substantial revisions. The majority of the policies were updated in mid-2024 and have been posted on the City website.
Annexation Policy Revisions
Currently, there are two annexation policies. Upon identifying significant overlap between them, staff determined that consolidating them into a single, comprehensive policy-1.11 Annexation Policy-would be more effective. A draft of the revised policy was submitted to the Council committee involved in annexation discussions, and no changes were suggested. The City Attorneys have also reviewed the document.
The clean version (Attachment 2) and redlined version (Attachment 3) are attached. Additionally, the previous versions of the policies (formerly numbered 1.02 and 1.03) are provided as Attachments 4 and 5.
Summary of Changes
Council Policies
1.11 Annexation Policy
• Minor changes to process and formatting.
• Consolidation of two existing policies into a single, comprehensive document.
• Updates to annexation policies for specific areas.
The City has been in discussions with Northfield Township and Bridgewater Township regarding modifications and approvals of the orderly annexation agreements (OAAs) between the City and both townships. An updated OAA with Northfield Township is expected to be presented to the Council for approval in an upcoming meeting.
For reference, a link to MN State Statute 414.0325 - Orderly Annexation in Designated Unincorporated Areas is attached (Attachment 6).
Next Steps
As this update was primarily an administrative cleanup, a full substantive policy review was not conducted. However, staff will initiate a process for a more in-depth review of substantive policy elements. This review will incorporate feedback from the Council committee members who have been working on the orderly annexation agreements (Councilmembers Ness and Peterson-White) along with Mayor Zweifel. Additionally, the Planning Commission will review the policy to ensure awareness and provide input for potential future revisions.
Please review the attached documents and provide any feedback or questions.
Alternative Options:
The Council can choose to make additional edits.
Financial Impacts:
N/A
Tentative Timelines:
Once approved, the policy will be updated to the City website and take effect.