Revised placement of a lift station allowed Mandan city commissioners to reduce the size of an annexation of property north of 19th Street South.

Last month, Keidel Family Limited requested annexation of its property, located on the west end of 19th Street. The city commission held a hearing on the matter at its Tuesday meeting.

In order to provide sanitary sewer to the Keidel properties, city engineer Tom Little recommended the forced annexation of two adjacent parcels belonging to Tri-West and the Eleanor Ripple Estate. The lift station was to be built on Tri-West, which belongs to Gary and Renee Brucker.

The Bruckers protested the annexation, saying that most of the property was undevelopable, and they had no intentions of developing the rest of it. Part of the property, which is northeast of the Keidel parcel, is in the Heart River flood plain while other portions feature rough topography. Renee Brucker said the developable portion only had enough room for about three homes.

The city published a notice of annexation with the Brucker land included. During the protest period, the Bruckers were the only property owners to indicate opposition, while owners of the Ripple Estate approved of the annexation.

The Bruckers' protest comprised 16.9 percent of the land value in the proposed annexation, Little said. To successfully protest the annexation, 25 percent of the land value is needed.

"You have the authority, if you so choose, to annex the entire area as published," Little told the commission.

But Little said that he is changing his original recommendation. That recommendation was based on the placement of utilities, and, during the interim, the city engineer said he discovered an alternate site just north of 19th Street on the Ripple property. With the new lift station placement, there is no overriding reason to annex Tri-West.

Based on a hypothetical construction project and a hypothetical special assessment district, Little said he determined that the utility project featuring water main, forced sewer main, lift station and gravity sewer will cost about $1.3 million. On the eastern one-third of the annexed area, the cost per acre will be $3,200 or $1,285 per lot. The western two-thirds will cost about $5,050 per acre or $2,020 per lot.

The lift station has the capability of serving a much larger area as envisioned in the southside annexation, which is still being worked on. Little said that as those properties are annexed, they would be charged hookup fees to pay for their portion of the special assessments.

Renee Brucker asked the commission not to include the Tri-West property in the annexation. She did question whether the property would be included in the larger south side annexation process the city started at the beginning of the year.

Mayor Ken LaMont said he didn't know how to address her question, but city attorney Malcolm Brown said that, should the annexation continue, the Brucker property would be part of it.

Commissioner Tim Helbling suggested that the portion of Tri-West that isn't in the flood plain be included in the annexation.

"If you aren't a part of this annexation and are brought in in two or three years you will still be charged the hookup fees," Helbling explained.

Brucker said she is worried about losing the property because of the specials that will be attached if annexed now. Brucker maintained that it could be 10 years before development reached a point that Tri-West could be a part of it.

"I wish you would let it go until the city needs it for further development," Brucker said. "It might look like a big area, but it's not that big. We could probably get three homes in at most."

Little told the commissioners that he had received a letter from the owners of the Ripple Estate property that they were in favor of the annexation.

Commissioner Dan Ulmer said he understood Helbling's interest in annexing part of Tri-West, but deferred to Little's recommendation and the Bruckers' request they be left out in making a motion to proceed with the annexation of the Keidel property and Ripple Estate property. This includes easements along 19th Avenue South and Eighth Street.

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel@;bismarcktribune.com.)