Fargo’s attempt to pull a fast one backfires

We’ve written previously about Fargo’s attempted land grab in its apparently endless quest for growth at any cost. It’s increasingly evident that the city isn’t acting in good faith and doesn’t care who it tramples in the process.

News stories have focused for months upon the city’s aggressive attempts to annex land upon which data firm Applied Digital intends to build. The firm had previously considered working with the city of Fargo on a building site but chose land in Harwood’s extraterritorial zoning area, instead, due to the larger city’s high taxes and restrictive regulations.

The story continued, with apparent behind-the-scenes maneuvering by Fargo, after its aggressive attempted land-grab became big news, which didn’t help the city’s image. Feigning surprise at the company’s move, in the aftermath, and suggesting that the city thought they had an agreement in the works with the firm, the debacle went below the public radar for a while.

That changed when Harwood Mayor Blake Hankey appeared at a recent Fargo City Commission meeting to expose the larger city’s continued covert attempts to secretly pursue annexation, despite its apparent damage control attempts at better public relations in the story. 

“Back off!” the Harwood Mayor exclaimed.

Again, things went quiet for a while, until, in what appeared to be an altruistic move, Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney recently announced that the city would be withdrawing its attempt to annex the Applied Digital land, under an agreement it had reached with Harwood. 

The last part of that statement went unnoticed by many, but it made us wary of what was in the works. Sure enough, such apprehensions proved prophetic. 

As the Roman Poet Virgil put it, “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” (an admonition not to trust adversaries or opponents pretending gestures of kindness).

Wednesday, Mayor Hankey appeared on a local radio talk show to announce that the city of Harwood had rejected Fargo’s proposal and to expose its details. 

Neither he nor other Harwood officials had previously seen, much less approved, any agreement with Fargo before it was publically announced as a done deal. 

Fargo’s public announcement that it had withdrawn its forced annexation attempt of the Applied Digital land now appears to be nothing more than a poorly executed public relations move while actually attempting yet another covert power grab.

One of the proposed agreement’s provisions, Hankey said, was that Fargo would lay claim to the future annexation of other land near Harwood, in return for backing down from its attempted forced annexation of the Applied Digital parcel. The owner of that other land which Fargo now covets apparently wants nothing to do with it. 

Hankey indicated that the land owner has made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that he wants to eventually become part of the city of Harwood, not the city of Fargo. In familiar disregard for landowners’ preferences, the proposed 20-year “agreement” would reportedly have staked Fargo’s claim to that land, instead.

The proposal which the Harwood City Council has unanimously rejected would also have barred Harwood from annexing any land within Fargo’s extraterritorial zoning area. 

A huge Red Flag!

That little provision should not be ignored, nor glossed over. While it sounds reasonable, on its face, it should be a huge red flag to the smaller community. 

Under North Dakota law, the amount of land adjoining a city over which the city can exert extraterritorial zoning authority is determined by the size of the city. That means that, in this case, Fargo’s extraterritorial zoning authority extends considerably farther than that of the much smaller city of Harwood, so it could exercise future annexation authority over far more land, under such an agreement, even if Harwood agreed to the same provisions relative to its own ET zoning area.

For the smaller city, that’s a no-win proposition.

This is, sadly, nothing new for the state’s largest city. Fargo has played this game before. 

As we’ve previously written, roughly three decades ago the fight involved Fargo, West Fargo and Horace (which lies southwest of Fargo and just south of West Fargo). Pawns in the battle were the rural residents in the vicinity who indicated a strong preference to become part of West Fargo, rather than Fargo, if they were forced to become part of any city at all. It took court action and mediation to resolve that clash.

Watching the same old game play out, once again, interesting comments can be heard in area communities. Some express disgust at North Dakota’s largest city’s insistence on becoming ever larger at the expense of its neighbors and many conclude that the only reason is its desire to collect more tax dollars. 

If true, that paints an ugly picture of a city of which most North Dakotans are traditionally, justifiably proud. But that city is apparently doing everything within its power to tarnish that image, these days.

Hankey indicated that his city’s attitude toward Fargo has become “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”. That wary approach is apparently well-founded.

There’s an unfortunate, well-known moniker in most of North Dakota and in the State Legislature: “Imperial Cass”. 

A former West Fargo legislator, though, was quick to remind colleagues that, no, actually, it’s “Imperial Fargo”.

More people are learning why, with each passing day.