Although they’re not physically moving, a set of storage units on Powell’s eastern edge could potentially shift from city limits into rural Park County — but only if the Powell City Council agrees to the change.

At its Nov. 17 meeting, the council voted 5-1 to allow the deannexation of two lots on the far end of East Seventh Street (Lane 8H). However, when the ordinance came up for its second of three readings on Monday night, the council expressed some misgivings and voted to table the measure for further discussion with the landowner.

One of the lots, roughly 4.1 acres in size, was developed several years ago and holds a set of storage units belonging to Dash Enterprises.

As part of preparations for potential future growth, owner Mike Birdsley has also installed gravel and expanded the chain link fence to encompass half the adjoining 4.7-acre lot to the east. By moving the properties into the county, Dash Enterprises would be able to avoid the city’s higher permit fees and more stringent building requirements on any future development, and would no longer need to pay the city’s 5-mill property tax levy.

Birdsley told the council he wanted to deannex the western lot years earlier, but was barred from doing so until he acquired and also deannexed the undeveloped eastern lot; otherwise, the western lot would have been something of an “island” within the city.

On the first of three readings on the deannexation, Councilman Steve Lensegrav cast the lone dissenting vote. He voiced concern that the eastern lot wouldn’t be required to have curb and gutter installed at the front of the property.

Lensegrav said the undeveloped parcel would look “a lot nicer” with the curb and gutter; Birdsley responded that “it’d be nice if Powell stepped up and helped me.”

“I mean, without being a smart aleck, you know, it comes with an expense,” Birdsley said, recalling that the curb and gutter for the western lot cost around $35,000.

He also noted that the curb on that property is already something of an island, because a portion of the property west of Dash Enterprises’ is also undeveloped.

“You feel kind of alone, way out there, throwing up curb and gutter,” Birdsley said. “Maybe we could ask the guy 3 miles further. You know, it’d look good in his place.”

“But that’s not a city lot,” Lensegrav countered, noting that Birdsley purchased the lot knowing it was in the city.

However, Birdsley’s engineer, Scott Lewis, noted that the city is unable to provide full services to the two properties: Because of the grade of the land, the city’s sewer system can’t be stretched that far to the east without some substantial new infrastructure — and there’s no water service there, either.

“Basically, we can’t get city services,” Lewis said of the reasoning behind the deannexation.

Although he would no longer be required to do so, Birdsley said there’s a “good chance” he would eventually install curb and gutter on the eastern parcel; he told the council he’s a perfectionist and has previously built more infrastructure than was required.

“But for right now, I’d like to use that money to pay for chainlink fence and everything else that I’m doing,” Birdsley said.

Though moving the parcels out of the city stands to save Dash Enterprises on fees, property taxes and infrastructure, Mayor John Wetzel suggested at an Oct. 20 meeting that the savings could be offset by higher electrical rates outside the city.

Wetzel also predicted that, at least for the foreseeable future, removing the two parcels from the city won’t have much impact on Powell’s development. For one thing, the eastern parcel continues to contain a right-of-way for a potential future street called Market Road.

The deannexation needs to pass a total of three readings before becoming final, and it's unclear whether that will happen. While Lensegrav had been the only one to raise concerns at the Nov. 17 meeting, other councilors expressed misgivings about deannexation during Monday night's meeting. Councilors said they wanted to reach out to Birdsley and see if  they could ease his concerns by delaying the requirement to install curb and gutter.

The Park County Commission accepted a report on the potential deannexation back in August and forwarded a few technical recommendations to the city.

(Editor's note: This story has been updated and revised from the print version to reflect developments from Monday night's Powell City Council meeting.)