Annexation Questions

I have had a number of people ask me about annexation options. First I am not an attorney but I will pass along my understanding.

The orderly annexation I had presented would allow Athens Township to have a great deal of control over its future and keep the township in existence for for 50 plus years. A couple basic items from this would be that land would only get annexed to a city if that specific landowner wanted to be annexed - this would follow the process the City of Isanti has always followed. There would be a joint planning board made up of equal members of township and city representatives.

The other option presented would immediately force all of Athens Township to be annexed out right by a participating city. This would come under the cover of and "orderly" annexation agreement but the individual landowners would not be able to prevent their property from being annexed. This option would raise the taxes of those annexed and planning authority would flow directly to the city.

To be clear my position is not to force any property to be annexed to the City of Isanti. I had hoped this could have gone differently but that was not possible.