Alaska’s highest court ruled against the City of Soldotna on Friday in the city’s long-standing annexation case. The decision sends the city back to the drawing board in its efforts to bring more central Kenai Peninsula residents into Soldotna’s boundaries.
Soldotna City manager Janette Bower called the Alaska Supreme Court ruling disappointing.
“It’s, you know, not the decision we wanted, but, of course, we’re going to always respect the Supreme Court and then we’ll review to see what other options may be available to us and whether we will continue to pursue the annexation,” she said.
The Friday ruling caps more than five years of work by the city to annex about two-and-a-half acres of land in Ridgeway, Funny River and Kalifornsky into Soldotna city limits. And it has implications beyond Soldotna — it sets a new precedent for how the Alaska Local Boundary Commission can advance those types of petitions.
“No other municipality has had to, basically, take the decision to a vote,” Bower said. “This is uncharted territory, and part of the reason why we did appeal is because it could have an effect on other municipalities in the state.”
The ruling is rooted in a 2020 decision by the Alaska Local Boundary Commission to send the city’s proposal to voters amid opposition from residents living in the areas proposed for annexation.
The city says annexing the properties will allow the city to grow and more equitably distribute the cost of city services, like road maintenance, among properties that benefit from them. But property owners who oppose annexation say they intentionally chose to live outside city limits so they wouldn’t be subject to Soldotna’s laws.
On a 3-2 vote, local boundary commissioners amended Soldotna’s petition. The amendment made annexation contingent on approval by voters in the city and in the areas proposed for annexation. That’s instead of making it contingent on approval by state lawmakers. It was the first time the commission amended a petition in that manner.
Soldotna city officials wanted the decision to go to the Alaska Legislature. So it appealed the commission’s decision, as well as the superior court ruling that affirmed the commission vote.
Throughout the appeal, Soldotna’s lawyers have argued that the commission acted outside its authority, that the decision was inconsistent and that the underlying regulation was invalid.
“Our argument is, and continues to be — as it states in the decision that we argued – that the commission’s constitutional obligation is to make decisions about municipal boundaries apart from the political process and local self-interest,” Bower said.
In Friday’s ruling, though, the Alaska Supreme Court said the Local Boundary Commission “acted within its statutory grant of authority and had a reasonable basis for converting the petition.”
It will ultimately fall to Soldotna City Council members to decide how the city should move forward. That could include submitting a new annexation petition.
“What are we going to do next?” Bower said. “I can’t tell you what we’re doing next, because we don’t know, you know, just a few hours into the decision, we’re not quite sure of what that will look like, but we’ll be putting that all together for a report to the council and making a decision.”
