CRESTVIEW — Citing what Councilman Doug Faircloth called "our own Frankenstein," the City Council unanimously agreed to look into how out-of-city utility service requests are handled.
Public Works Director Wayne Steele said there are many county neighborhoods adjacent to Crestview that are served by the city's utilities.
Growth Management Director Teresa Gaillard requested a workshop to address concerns surrounding the procedure.
Currently, county residents whose homes are in neighborhoods served by Crestview water and sewer service who desire to be hooked up to the utilities may petition for the service.
In addition to paying fees to tap into the line and paying a higher usage fee as a non-city resident, county customers must also agree to have their property annexed into the city if their land is contiguous to the city or becomes contiguous in the future.
However, the agreement is only between the resident requesting the service. If the resident sells his land, the buyer is not bound by the agreement with the previous owner, Gaillard said, which has caused problems when the city tries to annex property years after the original service was connected.
Faircloth was incredulous when Gaillard said the city's annexation fee is $5,000.
"Did you just tell us that we're going to ask these people for $5,000 just to collect ad valorem taxes?" he asked.
Gaillard explained annexation involves many expenses, including changing the city's comprehensive plan, consultant fees to change the plan and file a state report, application fees to rezone the land from county to city, and multiple $500 newspaper ads to publicly advertise the changes.
"Well, it looks to me like we have created our own Frankenstein," Faircloth said.
Steele suggested dropping the annexation requirement and just charging out-of-town fees to simplify the matter.
The council unanimously approved any legal fees needed to research the matter and agreed to hold a workshop at an as-yet unannounced date to review the recommendations.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview to consider changes to out-of-city service requirements