The City has been working on the proposed Fox Creek Annexation for several years to allow for additional cohesive and orderly development of an area that is anticipated to see additional growth.  The Fox Creek Annexation Area was named primarily because the Fox Creek Neighborhood is the development immediately adjacent to the current city limits. The annexation area, though, does extend westward to Ute Avenue.

Annexation is the addition of land area to a city. It allows cities to control land usage in areas that they anticipate growing into to ensure alignment with the long-range goals of the city as identified in their comprehensive plan. It is the City of West Des Moines' philosophy to plan before development to ensure long-term, effective expansion of the community, which has happened by planning desired future land uses and future transportation networks and infrastructure within the proposed annexation area.

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Fox Creek Benefited Water District FAQs

Water

• Connecting to the West Des Moines Water Works (WDMWW) water system is not mandatory if your property is annexed into the city. It would only happen if the current Fox Creek Benefitted Water District (FCBWD) system requests to connect and it’s approved by all governing parties. Even a failure of the FCBWD water system would not outright oblige WDMWW to serve the Benefitted Water District unless the two parties agreed to terms. It is WDMWW’s practice to prohibit any water connections to their system until the property is within city limits or until the property owners have signed a binding annexation agreement and is expected to be annexed within the next year.
• Multiple engineering studies conducted by private firms have concluded that there are constraints with the FCBWD system, citing age, condition, treatment capacity, availability of future water source, water tower condition, and other factors that will need to be addressed with some improvements immediately and some in the very near future. These improvements are anticipated to be costly
• Residents should be mindful of the possible benefits of connecting to the WDMWW before investing millions of dollars into their existing system. As WDMWW shared at the meeting, no major infrastructure improvements are needed on their end to serve the FCBWD.WDMWW has a long history of having the lowest water rates of municipalities in the metro.
• WDMWW would agree to pay for the connection of the system to WDMWW system including those facing Mills Civic Parkway. The current FCBWD system is not capable of handling a large fire and water would need to be hauled in. Fox Creek HOA would be responsible for the repairing/replacing of hydrants estimated to be around $60,000. This could be spread over a period of a few years as a monthly fee on your water bill.
• Water fee district fees and connection fees are not waived. Fee district fees are currently $3,646 ^[1] per acre. If a home has more than one acre, the cost above one acre would be deferred until the property is subdivided. Also, a connection fee of $700 per connection would be assessed. It might be possible to offset all, or a portion of, these fees with the remaining cash balance of the Fox Creek Benefited Water District fund.
• It is our belief that addressing future water issues through the Fox Creek Benefitted Water District, if able to do so, will cost more per household than the increased city property taxes based on a study completed by Public Finance Management (PFM).

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[1] The fee is adjusted on July 1 of each year based on the ENR Construction Cost Index. The amount of the 2025 adjustment is not yet known.

Sanitary Sewer

• Connecting to the city’s sanitary sewer system is not mandatory if annexed into the city unless A) your septic system fails; AND B) your property is within 400-feet of a city sanitary sewer main. If not within 400-feet you can freely continue to use, repair, or replace a septic system.
• For residents within the 400 ft. of a sanitary sewer main, there would be an opportunity to seek an appeal of the determination to connect to a sanitary sewer, which can be provided by the City Council.

Tax Abatement

• The city’s previous offer in 2023 was to provide 5-year sliding scale tax abatement on the city’s portion of the property tax levy. 
• In an effort to provide a further concession to the property owners within the annexation area, the city is now agreeable to providing a 10-year sliding scale property tax abatement.  However, this abatement schedule will only be provided for a limited time before the offer will lapse.
• The 10-year sliding scale schedule is found below and only applies to the City’s portion of the property tax levy. For example, in Years 1 & 2 the City property tax rate will be discounted by 75% (i.e. you will only be paying 25% of the city property tax levy). Per State law related to annexations, cities cannot offer any abatement schedule higher than what is presented in this offer.
• After annexation, it could be anywhere from 12-18 months (dependent on timing of annexation) before West Des Moines’ tax rate would show up on a property tax bill, and before the abatement would become effective.

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Street and Road Maintenance

• The city is not proposing to take over ownership and maintenance of the private street network that serves the Fox Creek or Sugar Creek Hills subdivisions since the streets are not built to city standards. All other public streets within the annexation area would be maintained by the city unless otherwise expressly stated.

Trash Removal/Recycling

• If the Fox Creek association and nearby residents chose to do so, the City would work with the Metro Waste Authority (MWA) to make the area part of the city’s refuse and recycling collection program. To accomplish this, the MWA would need to evaluate current private streets to make sure that they are adequate to support the weight and turn-around needs of their vehicles.
• Current waste collection fees for residential garbage are charged monthly and vary based on the cart size. As of May 1, 2025, a 48-gallon cart is $12.25 per month, with an additional $8.25 for each extra cart. A 96-gallon cart costs $12.75 per month, with an additional $8.75 for each extra cart.

Fiber Conduit Installation (High Speed Internet)

• The city is agreeable to extending the fiber conduit system into the neighborhood without cost to the property owners. This will allow additional high speed internet service providers to offer their fiber services to the area, increasing the choices for residents to choose from, and routinely causing current providers to upgrade their lines when conduit is available. To accomplish this, the HOA would need to grant necessary easements for the conduit routes within the existing private street rights of way to the city without cost.

Public Safety

• An enhanced level of public safety services (fire, police, EMS) would be an additional benefit to annexation. West Des Moines’s emergency services are highly accredited and provide a high level of service.
• The nearest fire station to the Fox Creek area is the existing station at Mills Civic Parkway and S. 81^st Street—less than 5 minutes response time from the area, and a station that is fully staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
• It may be advantageous to check with your home insurance provider to see if being primarily served by the nearest fire station and improvements that would enhance fire flow protection to the area would yield a cost savings to your insurance premiums.
• Open burning would be prohibited within city limits. According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, landscape waste cannot be burned within “¼ mile of a structure inhabited by anyone other than the landowner conducting the open burning.”

City Code Compliance

• If structures (primary dwellings, outbuildings, swimming pools, or other accessory structures) are in compliance with Dallas County zoning codes at the time the use was started but would otherwise not meet current West Des Moines city codes, legal non-conforming, or “grandfathered” status would exist.
• Expansion or enlargement of non-conformities would not be permitted under city code, but there is an opportunity to seek zoning exceptions and variance from the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
• Repairs to existing structures whether conforming, or non-conforming would be allowed, subject to receiving proper building permits.
• The city is not interested in proactive enforcement sweeps of non-conformities within the area if annexed into the city and would respond on a compliant (complaint?) basis.

Fox Creek Area Annexation FAQ