City Will Consider Strategic Plan on Wednesday, Keeps Annexation in Play

At this Wednesday’s meeting, the City of Ukiah will continue discussions on its Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan is a document meant to guide the City’s long-term priorities and direction. On paper, the draft includes language about “expanded prioritization of clear, timely, and accessible communication” and the creation of feedback loops with the community and staff.

But when it comes to growth and expansion, the language shift in the document raises more questions than it answers.

In earlier drafts, the City explicitly listed “prepare and submit annexation applications” as an actionable item. That language has now been crossed out. In its place is language directing staff to “prepare and submit reorganization applications” aligned with the City’s Sphere of Influence (SOI).

Here’s the important part: under Local Agency Formation Commission procedures, annexations are processed as reorganizations. Changing the word does not change the mechanism. The policy direction remains the same, moving forward with boundary changes consistent with the City’s updated Sphere of Influence. In other words, annexation may have been softened in wording, but it remains embedded in the Strategic Plan’s actionable priorities.

This is happening despite months of public silence and no structured community conversation about whether residents support renewed expansion efforts. There have been no workshops, no outreach process to affected neighborhoods, and no formal opportunity for residents to weigh in before the expansion strategy is written into the City’s core planning document.

If the City truly intends to prioritize communication and community vision, that conversation must happen before reorganization — or annexation — applications are prepared and submitted. Changing terminology is not the same as changing direction.

A Strategic Plan should reflect the will of the community, not force it upon us.