IOWA CITY – Coralville and North Liberty are close to ending a five-year-old boundary dispute.

The two city councils will vote Oct. 11 on a 10-year agreement that divides the unincorporated area between the towns into four sections that will serve as a blueprint for annexation decisions.

“This really tightens it up and we should have no problems with this going ahead in the future,” said Coralville City Attorney Kevin Olson.

That would be a big change from recent history, with the cities arguing since 2006 over a Coralville annexation plan in the area around North Liberty Road and North Dubuque Street.

The dispute saw Coralville and North Liberty make competing annexation requests to the City Development Board, a state panel whose OK was needed for the plans to proceed.

The board delayed taking action because a group of residents in the disputed area sued Coralville over its plan. In 2009, a Johnson County District Court judge sided with the residents.

The current proposal splits the land around North Liberty Road and Dubuque Street into four areas: A, B, C and D. The land is mostly to North Liberty’s east and southeast and to Coralville’s north. See the map below.

Area A could only be annexed by North Liberty, B by Coralville and D would be off limits to both towns. Area C could go to Coralville through voluntary annexation, in which at least 80 percent of the annexation area would have to include consenting landowners.

Areas A and B could be annexed through any means.

The agreement covers about 5,350 acres, although that is a rough estimate because the outer limits are not set in the agreement and it includes large amounts of federal property and developed land, neither of which is likely to be annexed, said Dean Wheatley, North Liberty’s planning director.

North Liberty City Administrator Ryan Heiar said the agreement would protect the interests of the cities and the rural residents, like those in area D, who don’t want to be annexed into either city.

“Ultimately, what it does is provide some direction for both communities as they move forward with development,” he said. “And I think from a public policy standpoint, this is the right way to go.”

However, Doug Paul, one of the leaders of the group that brought the lawsuit against Coralville, said he and other residents are not satisfied with the agreement. He said their input was not sought and he knows of people who wanted to be in the North Liberty annexation area who instead would be in the Coralville’s.

The residents have said they are concerned about increasing vehicular traffic and want to protect the rural characteristics of the area, and they believe North Liberty would be more responsive to them. He also predicted Coralville would seek a larger annexation area at the end of the 10-year deal.

“They’re going to stop for 10 years, while they get the first part developed, then it’s all bets off,” said Paul, who lives in the area that could not be annexed by either city under the agreement.

The property that kicked off the annexation fight, generally referred to as the Scanlon property, sits on both sides of Dubuque Street, Olson said. Under the agreement, the land south of Dubuque Street could go to Coralville, he said. He was not sure what the Scanlon family, which requested annexation into Coralville in 2006, wants to do at this time.

The agreement also would give Coralville most of the 46 acres it agreed to buy in May in the disputed area, a move that further raised tensions. North Liberty would get an easement through the property to install a sewer line to serve areas it could annex.

Heiar said North Liberty does not have any immediate annexation plans, but it has heard from a couple of developers interested in building on the north side of Dubuque Street.

The agreement would require the annexation requests before the City Development Board to be amended or dismissed.

Annexation Map