By EMRY DINMAN

Staff Writer

MOSES LAKE — There will be a freeze of new annexations into the city of Moses Lake through June 2021, after city council members unanimously approved a moratorium at Tuesday’s council meeting.

City officials, in recommending the moratorium, said that the city needed the additional time to complete its comprehensive plan and capital facilities plan, citing insufficient oversight and management of annexations made in the last decade.

The comprehensive plan and capital facilities plan “help guide the city and the decisions that we make about how we grow and where we grow,” said Melissa Bethel, who was recently hired as the city’s community development director. “If we don’t have an understanding about the growth of our city, we can’t sustain ourselves and don’t know how much money it will cost us each time we do an annexation.”

Waiting for completion of the comprehensive plan until next June will give staff the guiding documents needed when the city considers new annexations and works to service those annexed areas, said City Manager Allison Williams at Tuesday’s council meeting.

“We have had our hand slapped by the state for not having the correct analysis and not doing our due diligence,” Bethel added. “I just want to make sure that moving forward, we can provide the proper information.”

City officials told council members Tuesday that there had been little pushback from community members regarding the proposed plan.

“I really support this 100%, I think it’s past time to do this,” Mayor David Curnel said at Tuesday’s meeting. “We’ve heard from our fire chief that we are really stretched to the limits when it comes to covering the territory in city limits that we already have. I think getting our ducks in a row is really the way for the city to go right now.”