A law changed by the North Dakota Legislature last spring forced Fargo city leaders Monday to scale back plans to bring more land into the city and further extend the city's zoning authority.
City commissioners voted in February to bring a 100-foot-wide, 3-mile-long strip of land along 57th Street South into city limits. The annexation basically created a border between the future growth areas of Fargo and Horace.
At the same time, Fargo commissioners voted to extend the city's extraterritorial (ET) area, or zoning jurisdiction, by the full four miles allowed under state law for cities Fargo's size.
But state lawmakers, concerned about the effects of such ET extensions on smaller cities and rural landowners, reduced the ET authority of cities of 25,000 or more people from four miles to two miles.
On Monday, Fargo commissioners pulled back the annexation by one mile and the ET extension by two miles, so that both city limits and the ET area will extend to the future 136th Avenue South.
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"Basically, the stuff we started in February didn't match up with the legislation," Fargo Senior Planner Jim Hinderaker said.
The strip of land to be annexed also was narrowed from 100 feet wide to 60 feet wide, and an 80-acre tract owned by developer Tony Kost was added to the annexation for a total of 102 acres.
Mayor Dennis Walaker noted Horace's mayor was informed that Fargo's annexation didn't cross 57th Street South, which the cities have informally agreed upon as a growth boundary.
Unless state lawmakers take additional action, the changed law will expire July 31, 2009, and Fargo's ET authority will return to being four miles.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Mike Nowatzki at (701) 241-5528
