Officials in Baytown Township have grown increasingly concerned about the threat of annexation from neighboring cities and are asking residents to weigh in on whether they think the township should become a city.

Baytown Township, population 2,200, borders Oak Park Heights, Lake Elmo and Bayport. A survey of township residents about incorporation is taking place this week; the survey deadline is midnight Friday.

“We would like to hear your feedback on the possibility of becoming a city while maintaining our low tax base,” township officials wrote in a note sent out to township residents. “We want to keep our 2.5-acre minimum lot size and our quality of life as a rural township or city.”

The town board will discuss the survey results at its meeting on Monday night. If enough residents express interest in incorporating, the town board plans to have the township residents vote on the matter during the township’s annual meeting in March, said John Hall, town board chairman.

“Becoming a city doesn’t necessarily stop 100 percent (the threat) of annexation, but it does give Baytown the opportunity to stay Baytown,” Hall said. “That is the whole premise of this push for incorporation – that we can continue with our way of life in Baytown Township or the city of Baytown, whatever it turns out to be. We’re still a community that looks out for our neighbor.”

Townships, which generally are 6 miles by 6 miles, are the governing bodies for those parts of the state, mostly rural, that aren’t governed by cities. More than 922,000 people in Minnesota live in townships, according to the Minnesota Association of Townships, which represents Minnesota’s 1,780 townships.

As development pressure increases, particularly in the metro area, many townships have opted to incorporate in order to stave off annexations from neighboring cities and protect their rural character.

New Scandia Township, for example, became the city of Scandia on Jan. 1, 2007; Empire Township, in Dakota County, became a city on Feb. 28, 2023.

“Some are becoming cities for self-preservation – not because it is the preferred choice for their community,” said Steve Fenske, general counsel for the Minnesota Association of Townships. “They’re making the best of a bad situation.”

Grass-roots democracy

Townships represent the very essence of grass-roots democracy, according to Fenske. They are the only form of government that is left where the citizens can set the spending level for those in the decision-making authority, he said.

“Voters set the levy themselves,” he said. “It’s not the city council doing it. A hallmark of townships is lower taxes.”

According to a financial analysis prepared for the township by Augsburg MBA students, all of the cities that border Baytown Township have higher tax costs. The owner of a $400,000 house in Oak Park Heights, for example, pays about $4,400 in annual taxes; the owner of a house of the same value in the township pays only about $2,900, according to the analysis.

If Baytown Township, which was organized in 1858, does not incorporate into a city, it runs the risk of annexation from Bayport, Oak Park Heights and Lake Elmo, higher taxes in those areas and less control over land usage, development, etc., the MBA students found.

As a city, Baytown would “have broad taxing and regulatory powers; receive additional state aid as a city, and cities provide greater certainty by establishing its borders and have control of costs,” the students found.

If township residents decide to transition from a township to a city, the incorporation process is expected to take about six months, officials said.

“We do not have a definitive answer as to whether the filing would prevent any adjacent city from annexing us during that process,” township officials wrote in a note to residents. “There is nothing a township can do to stop the annexation from a neighboring city. State laws favor cities over townships. As long as 60 percent of a township border is adjacent to a city such as Lake Elmo, Oak Park Heights, or Bayport; and that city wants to annex 40 acres or less, they are allowed to serve notice of intent to annex and there is nothing the township can do to stop the annexation.

“Conversely, if we become a city, they would not be allowed to annex part or all of Baytown Township.”

Town Board member Rick Weyrauch said Wednesday that he is interested in seeing the results of the survey.

“I am in a neutral position,” he said. “If 65 percent of people said they wanted to do it, well, I wouldn’t fight it, but I’m also not interested in leading the charge.”

Weyrauch said he loves the township’s rural character – and that he and others want that to stay the same.

“I just had to scare three deer from my bird feeder this morning,” he said. “I’m a stone’s throw away from Oak Park Heights, which has basically everything you could want or need, and I live here as if I’m in the middle of Koochiching County. It’s the ultimate American life here in Baytown Township and anybody who says differently, they’re not paying attention.”

Becoming a city, ironically, may be the answer to saving the township’s rural way of life. Last year, a Stillwater development company announced that it wanted to build 46 single-family houses on a horse farm in Baytown Township, and it wanted the land annexed into Bayport; the development did not move forward after the state revoked the contractor’s license.

“That’s how annexation works – it’s a chunk here and it’s a chunk there,” said Fenske, of the Minnesota Association of Townships. “If they have a mind to incorporate, sooner then becomes better.”

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