UKIAH, CA., 10/14/25 — After pausing plans over the summer to annex unincorporated lands into Ukiah city limits, the city announced last week a meeting with some local organizations who opposed the initial proposal to discuss a way to move forward.
The discussion follows a pause on the topic initiated by the city in July, when the Ukiah City Council decided to scale back the amount of land it plans to include in a future proposal.
In a press release, the city of Ukiah said its officials met Wednesday with three community organizations that have been particularly active in the annexation discussion. The organizations are the Mendocino County Farm Bureau, a member organization of the California Farm Bureau Association, Mendo Matters, a group that informs the community on local government policies, and the No Ukiah Annexation group created in opposition to the annexation plans.
The city stated in its press release, “The meeting provided a valuable opportunity to exchange information, address misconceptions, and gather feedback on specific ideas that could inform revisions to the city’s potential annexation maps.”
Adam Gaska, executive director of the Mendocino County Farm Bureau, said in an interview that while the bureau would like to see the annexation plan canceled, he is glad the city is revising its proposal to better fit the community’s needs.
“We would have preferred if they had done a little bit more in terms of officially pulling back the plan,” Gaska said. “We do feel comfortable that they are going back to the drawing board and they are going to come back with something else, but we are not sure when.”
But according to Gaska, annexations generally do not benefit farmland areas. Overall, he said the bureau is not supportive of the city’s attempt to acquire unincorporated land.
“I don’t know that there’s anything the city can really do for the farm bureau to be in favor of annexation. The best that they could achieve is us being neutral,” Gaska added. “We don’t see what the benefit to farmers would be.”
The city of Ukiah’s annexation discussion has sparked months of heated debates among community members.
In the city’s previous annexation proposal, the city would have taken over several unincorporated areas surrounding Ukiah.
No Ukiah Annexation, a local group that has been strongly opposed to the city’s annexation plans, said in a statement to The Mendocino Voice that it still hasn’t received answers to critical questions posed to the city.
“We are committed to collaboration and transparency in addressing the city of Ukiah’s proposed annexation plans. Our role is to represent the community, ask hard questions, and ensure transparency,” the statement said. “Yet when we asked what feedback the city has received and how it shaped their plans, we got no answers. Public engagement should never be treated as a burden or an afterthought.”
If the city does get an annexation plan approved by the Ukiah City Council and the Mendocino Local Agency Formation Commission in the future, the city would gradually receive a large amount of revenue from property, sales and transient occupancy taxes from those areas, while the county’s tax revenue would decrease. This is due to a master tax sharing agreement signed by the county in partnership with the cities of Ukiah, Willits, Fort Bragg and Point Arena to coordinate tax revenues when cities annex unincorporated land.
The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors has expressed concern over the gradual loss of tax money if an annexation occurs. Shannon Riley, the Ukiah deputy city manager, said the county would actually save money as services are eventually transferred to the city’s jurisdiction.
“The services like police, streets, parks and code enforcement. Those services would immediately shift to the responsibility of the city,” Riley said in an interview. “The county would be immediately relieved of up to $18 million in street improvement in the areas around the city limits, immediately relieved of law enforcement services to some of the highest call volume areas in the county. That’s why we can’t take this decision lightly; we have to be confident that we can provide those services.”
Riley noted that while the city has not set a date to present a revised annexation proposal, it will continue meeting with local groups and concerned community members to understand which changes to make in the next annexation draft.
“There will be plenty more public meetings and conversations about this,” Riley added. “We have literally met with every person that has requested a meeting and will continue to do that.”
Scotts dam is coming down which will answer the Farm Bureau concerns by itself. These rural parcels won’t have access to the cheap water anymore and won’t be viable farm plots. Gaska was a noteworthy proponent of bringing the smaller waters utilities together with the Ukiah water agency to gain new benefits of being part of a bigger water utility. (like grant access)
The Ross Liberty wing doesn’t want his business costs to go up. The cost to Mendocino as a county (or loss of revenue) is a red herring. Mendo as a county will correct its finances over time and benefit from a more robust City of Ukiah. Ukiah sales taxes still go to the county at the same rate as if they were unincorporated which plays a note worthy role in the general fund. Residential property taxes mostly go to school districts not the general fund.
Mendocino is too big and too spread out currently for the governing body to adequately cover these remote locations. Insurance is driving up costs in these remote areas and over time people will live closer to funded fire stations and police/sheriff locations, which is in and near cities. County roads will get worse regardless of the annexation process for some time. Ukiah is the gate way into Mendocino and with it much of the commercial business.
Is this why Hopland water bills are tripling at the same time we are learning approximately 20 % of our future bills will go towards Ukiah administration?
No. Its because of a Caltrans project along the 101 in Hopland.
NOW Ukiah officials are meeting with stakeholders? The only reason they are holding meetings is because they got pushback from the property owners whose land they intended to annex. You judge folks by their actions not their words. In my view, neither the City of Ukiah or Mendocino County government leaders are competent or trustworthy.
It’s too bad the cannabis legalization didn’t work out for your business. Blaming others is part of the anger stage in the grief process.