All 65 Winlock residents who signed a petition against the City of Winlock’s proposal to annex 1,355 acres of the city’s urban growth area (UGA) have been summoned to an April 14 hearing in Lewis County Superior Court where a judge will determine whether or not to force the Lewis County Boundary Review Commission to recognize the annexation.
The hearing is part of a petition for several written orders filed by the City of Winlock on March 22.
Through the petition, the City of Winlock asks Lewis County Superior Court to issue writs of mandamus and prohibition, which are court orders issuing directions to a lesser government body. In this case, the body is the state of Washington Boundary Review Board for Lewis County, a five-member quasi-judicial administrative body that reviews proposals for boundary changes by cities, towns and special-purpose districts within Lewis County, including city or district annexations.
The City of Winlock held a public hearing on Aug. 22, 2022, about its proposal to annex 1,355 acres of its UGA into the city, expanding the City of Winlock eastward to Interstate 5. During that meeting, multiple people expressed frustrations and concerns about the potential effects of annexation, which include higher taxes, loss of well water and laws on planting trees, according to previous Chronicle reporting.
Despite the public outcry, the Winlock City Council voted to take the next step toward approving the annexation. One month later, on Sept. 22, the City of Winlock filed a formal notice of intent to the Boundary Review Board.
Winlock’s notice of intent was deemed “legally sufficient” on Nov. 28 and was assigned a file number by the Boundary Review Board on Dec. 1, according to documents filed in Lewis County Superior Court as part of the petition.
That Dec. 1 filing date marked the beginning of a 45-day statutory period.
Under state law, the annexation is automatically approved at the end of that statutory period unless the Boundary Review Board invokes its jurisdiction before the 45-day deadline, according to the documents.
In the case of Winlock’s annexation proposal, the statutory period expired on Jan. 15, 2023.
The Boundary Review Board reportedly did not issue an official notice of Winlock’s proposed annexation until Jan. 12, 2023, according to the documents.
The notice “erroneously” established a new 45-day statutory period, with a Feb. 27 deadline.
On Feb. 24, 65 of the UGA’s 131 residents submitted a petition to the Boundary Review Board opposing the annexation.
In that petition, Winlock residents argued the City of Winlock lacked the infrastructure “to care for us in the UGA” and stated, “they do not want their land to be placed in the hands of the City of Winlock, who will make all new residents abide by their city ordinances. They prefer to live in the country. If they wanted to live in the city, they would have purchased homes in the city.”
On Feb. 27, Lewis County informed the City of Winlock the Boundary Review Board was invoking its jurisdiction, halting the annexation until the board could review the city’s capacity to expand urban-level services to the proposed area of annexation.
In its petition to Lewis County Superior Court, the City of Winlock argues that since the Boundary Review Board did not accept the petition or invoke its jurisdiction before Jan. 15, “the Boundary Review Board has no authority, power or jurisdiction to take any action whatsoever to review Winlock’s annexation, excepting to recognize the annexation approved by operation of law,” reads the petition.
By trying to invoke its authority after the Jan. 15 deadline, the City of Winlock argues, the Boundary Review Board “has acted, and continues to act, in disregard of the statutory limits under its authority of the law.”
The City of Winlock specifically asks for writs of mandamus, a type of court order forcing a lesser government official to properly perform their duties, requiring the Boundary Review Board to recognize the approval of the City of Winlock’s annexation proposal.
In addition, the City of Winlock asks for writs of prohibition, a type of court order preventing a lesser court from interfering with a higher court, “to permanently restrain the Boundary Review Board” from taking any future action related to the City of Winlock’s annexation proposal.
The Boundary Review Board held a special meeting to discuss the pending litigation on April 5, during which it authorized the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office to respond to the City of Winlock’s petition.
That response was not publicly available as of Wednesday afternoon.
Lewis County Superior Court Judge J. Andrew Toynbee will address the case during a “show cause” hearing scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Friday, April 14.
