ELYSIAN IN THE NEWS

City of Elysian Annexes Land and Approves Plats

  Published November 11, 2004    

 The Elysian Enterprise

 by Jay Schneider, Editor

 LIFE/Enterprise

      The Elysian City Council has been busy the last couple of months, looking at new parcels of land which have been proposed for annexation into the city.
      Along with the annexation, a handful of new plats were approved for these parcels, including three most recently in mid-October.
      At the Monday, Oct. 11 council meeting final plats for the Sakatah Trail Estates, Taylor Pine Ridge Development and the Ray's Lake Estates, were approved.
      Pine Ridge, northeast of Ray's Lake, is the largest of the three, with 71 new lots available. Sakatah Trail, which is located north of the Bear's Den, has 24 lots and Ray's Lake has six lots.
      Elysian Clerk Administrator Pat Nusbaum said with all the additions to the community, the city is now at its largest size ever, and it's still growing.
      "I don't even have an official map anymore," she said.  "Obviously we are moving faster than anticipated. But it has been a positive thing."
      Other areas which have recently been annexed but no plans have been presented include 54 acres of the Roessler property, six acres on the Earle Taylor property, 20 acres along the north shore of Lake Tustin, the 66 acre Kaplan property and 14 acres adjacent to the Kaplan property.
      Nusbaum said the infrastructure on the 3rd and 4th additions of the Roemhildt's Addition has already started. There are 60+ lots in this area.
      For a community which now is more than 550 residents, the developments seem to continue, forcing the planning commission to spend much time examining the plans.
      "The planning commission meets monthly, if not more than monthly, to deal with zoning issues," Nusbaum said.
      Because of the population increase, this is the first year the City of Elysian has been encouraged by the state to have a Truth-in-Taxation meeting. These are reserved for cities with more than 500 residents.
      Since the year 2000, 92 new homes have been built. Of course some of them have been people tearing down houses and rebuilding, but the influx of homes has been quite a sight.
      In 1998 the last water and sewer update occurred in the city, but the projection at that time was to stretch it out for 20 years.
      "That was the foresight of the council years ago to get that done (extend water and sewer outside of the city limits)," Nusbsaum said. "We have utilities out to the outer portions of the city limits. That makes it easier to annex in property."
      The City of Elysian actually didn't have paved city streets until 1993, and Nusbaum feels things have really started to happen ever since that happened.
      Mayor Mack Evans said that individuals have asked to have their land annexed into the city.
      "These individuals want sewer and water out there," Evans said.
      With all this land now being added to the Elysian city, in the long run the property values will be aided.
      Growth eventually helps the tax base, but everything takes time.
      In the case of these 100+ lots and acres, it may be a decade before all of the areas are covered with homes.
      "It will take a long time for this to happen," Evans said. "Not in one or two years, probably five to seven years.

It takes time to get everything worked out."

Reprinted with permission