Local News

City of Fort Wayne hoping to annex 23 square miles north of city limits

(Saige Driver/WOWO Radio)

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WOWO): The City of Fort Wayne may be expanding by 23 square miles and about 22,000 residents if it annexes land north of the current city limits in the newest annexation plan.

Mayor Tom Henry and city leaders announced the plan Monday afternoon. Henry says the city needs to annex as the urban area continues to grow.

The North IV annexation boundaries are Gump and Hursh roads to the north, City of Fort Wayne limits to the south, Schwartz Road to the east, and Dunton Road to the west.

If the approved by the city council, the annexation will go into effect January 2017.

This would be the city’s first annexation since 2006. This growth means more people will use city police, fire protection, water and sewer utilities.

As part of the annexation, a new fire station would be built north of Dupont Road and east of I-69. Six additional Fort Wayne police officers would be assigned to that annexed area at the completion of the next recruit class.

A public hearing will occur in July with an expected vote on the annexation ordinance to take place in August. If its approved It would be the first annexation for the city since 2006.

The city also says the newly annexed area would bring in extra money for Fort Wayne services. Here’s its breakdown:

Highlights of the projected property tax impact:
*City of Fort Wayne – revenues of $10.1 million
*Allen County government – loss of $1.5 million
*Allen County Public Library – loss of $574,800
*East Allen County Schools – loss of $325,000
*Fort Wayne Community Schools – loss of $280,000
*Northwest Allen County Schools – loss of $2.45 million

The city will hold a series of meetings designed to share information with residents about the proposed annexation.

The meetings will have an open-house format. There won’t be a formal presentation. Instead residents will be able to stop in and ask questions. City staff will be available at the meetings to provide answers.

Public meeting schedule:
*11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. April 18 in the Omni Room on the garden level of Citizens Square, 200 E. Berry St.
*7 to 9 a.m. April 19 at Life Bridge Church, 12719 Corbin Road.
*5:30 to 7:30 p.m. April 19 at Life Bridge Church, 12719 Corbin Road.
*5:30 to 7:30 p.m. April 27 at the Mirro Center, 10622 Parkview Plaza Drive.
*7 to 9 p.m. April 28 at the Mirro Center, 10622 Parkview Plaza Drive.
*5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Mirro Center, 10622 Parkview Plaza Drive.

For more information visit, www.cityoffortwayne.org/annexation. Check out a map of the proposed annexation area online.

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8 comments

Tim Bristow March 14, 2016 at 2:02 pm

*Allen County Public Library – loss of $574,800
*East Allen County Schools – loss of $325,000
*Fort Wayne Community Schools – loss of $280,000
*Northwest Allen County Schools – loss of $2.45 million

Why would the school systems or library stand to lose revenue? the school district does not change with annexation nor does the library district?
Unless these properties would fall under a tax cap limitation.

Reply
somebody March 16, 2016 at 9:31 am

I’m confused on your comment. If there’s an annexation Northwest Allen would lose those citizens to the Fort Wayne school district. Thus, Northwest Allen would lose 2.45 million in revenue.

Reply
Jennifer March 14, 2016 at 11:17 pm

Why would that be at all beneficial when there are more entity losses than gains. Seems like a no brainer to me. VOTE AGAINST.

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Chris Ohneck March 15, 2016 at 7:12 pm

Why isn’t the underlying story being told!
Nelson Peters and Therese Brown (county commissioners, elected to look out for the interest of the country residents) just voted to spread the cost of the new sewer additions up north onto the areas that are not being annexed.
Is this to give relief to the city who will take over these areas?
The residents of these areas signed papers not to fight annexation in return for no tap fees!
I urge county residents not to re-elect these two when they are up for re-election!

Reply
Randy April 12, 2016 at 11:33 am

I’m not sure where you got all of your information from, or perhaps I misunderstood your point, but I suffered the full financial brunt possible by being forced to connect to city sewer. The entire cost of the project is being billed to home owners over the next 20 years at $120/mo (my sewer bill), I had to pay for my own connection ($1600 without landscaping costs to repair my property… and that was for a 70′ run. Some of my neighbors paid upwards of $4000), and all permits.

So if they’re “spreading the costs”, I’m not sure to who because I’m certainly not going to get any benefit from it. The only thing you got correct is that we were all forced to sign papers to be annexed (it was a requirement to obtain our permits), but it wasn’t because we got some sort of special deal out of doing so, or at least I didn’t.

So, the story from my perspective is that city strong armed all of us to pay for a sewer we didn’t want (by condemning 300+ septic systems), forced us with a metaphorical gun to our heads to agree to be annexed (if we didn’t connect to the sewer they claimed they would cap our plumbing at the line and condemn our houses… we couldn’t get the permits to connect without that agreement), charged us for the entire cost of the project PLUS interest (as I recall, it was 7%), and ran it down to the 3 new housing developments being built right now for “free” (which will also be annexed).

No matter what position you’re taking on the issue, those of us in the affected area are already screwed because we had to sign our rights away 2 years ago. Honestly, I’m just surprised it took the city this long to get around to it. I thought for sure as soon as they had the papers for the sewer all signed we would be annexed the next week.

Personally, the ONLY good thing about it is that they may bring city water some day so I won’t have to keep messing around with softener salt and be able to reclaim a fairly large portion of my basement by getting rid of all of that equipment. I imagine my water bill will also be $120/mo though (the property tax caps are exactly that, but they can and will raise utility rates as high as they care to).

Reply
Somebody March 16, 2016 at 9:28 am

Well we all know what this is about. The property values of homes in Northwest Allen have risen nearly $40,000 per property in certain areas and that equates to huge tax dollars. Fort Wayne you aren’t fooling anybody. Taking what isn’t yours…

Reply
Steve March 16, 2016 at 7:44 pm

We should boycott the downtown businesses and the Tin Caps, let them feel what it is like to loose money just like our schools. Putting pressure on them will put pressure on Tom Henry.

Reply
Denise March 17, 2016 at 4:35 am

There is a reason people move into the Northwest Allen school system. It is to not be part of the FWCS and to not live in the city. That is the reason I moved there, the reason I pay too much in taxes and paid way to much for a home. And now they want to take that way from us? This is all about greed, it’s where all the city’s money is moving to and now they are coming after it.

Reply

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