A California city tried to triple in size. Then came the rebellion.

Ukiah City Hall, backed by the town's western hills, is leading efforts to annex nearby unincorporated land. (Matt LaFever/SFGATE)

On June 3, more than 100 people packed into the Ukiah Valley Conference Center downtown, a third of them gripping red-and-white signs that read "No Ukiah Annexation." Near the front doors, a cluster of sign-holders huddled like a football team, whispering strategy and rehearsing zingers for when the mic would finally be theirs. They came ready to blast city officials over a sweeping proposal to triple the size of Ukiah, swallowing swaths of unincorporated land into city limits.

The atmosphere was electric - a mix of tension, anticipation and quiet defiance. City officials, police officers, firefighters and curious onlookers lined the walls, watching as the two sides of a simmering land-use fight faced off.

Phil Williams, the city's attorney guiding the annexation process, stepped up to the mic. The crowd quieted. He assured them: Nothing was set in stone. The city was still collecting feedback. Then came the curveball.

There would be no Q&A. No speeches. No microphone for the sign-holders to grill officials in front of a crowd. Instead, Williams announced, attendees could visit a series of breakout stations scattered around the room - one for code enforcement, another for police, another for city management - to share their concerns one-on-one with city officials.

Residents hold "No Ukiah Annexation" signs during a packed city-led workshop on the proposal. (Matt LaFever/SFGATE)

The air went out of the room. The "No Ukiah Annexation" crowd had come for a showdown, not quiet chats. Within five minutes of the format reveal, nearly half the crowd had left, signs tucked under arms, their big moment evaporated.

The city may have defused the tension that afternoon, but the fight was far from over. 

The battle for the valley

Just two and a half hours north of San Francisco, Ukiah is the largest city in Mendocino County, the region's government and agricultural hub. For nearly 30 years, city leaders have been laying the groundwork to push beyond city limits. In 1995, Ukiah began mapping land-use plans for surrounding areas, arguing that what was then scattered development needed a more coordinated approach. By 2006, the city had drawn an ambitious "sphere of influence" - a state-mandated planning boundary that marks where a city expects to grow and provide services in the future. Since 2020, Ukiah has moved aggressively within that zone, consolidating control over key utilities like water, sewer and fire protection.

Outside the city, those services have long been fragmented. Many neighborhoods rely on privately run water and sanitation districts. Law enforcement falls to the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, which is responsible for a sprawling county bigger than Rhode Island and often stretched thin. Fire protection is handled by a patchwork of local and state agencies. Through annexation, city officials say they can bring order to the chaos, unifying services under one umbrella.

A draft map outlines the city of Ukiah's proposed annexation area, spanning neighborhoods north and south of city limits. (City of Ukiah)

The city's ultimate annexation plan, outlined in early public drafts, aims to triple Ukiah's size by pulling in sprawling neighborhoods that now sit just outside city limits. It doesn't stop at housing and business centers - the proposal also sweeps in vast stretches of vineyards and farmland and a major stretch of the Russian River, extending Ukiah's reach from the shores of Lake Mendocino all the way to the base of the Hopland Grade.

This past April, Ukiah city staff went before the council with a clear message: The path to annexation is paved. With the city council's green light, they could bypass the usual red tape - like environmental checks and zoning approvals - and seal the deal before year's end. But just as momentum picked up, they hit a wall: a growing, galvanized resistance that had no intention of letting the city's plan steamroll forward.

A well-funded "No Ukiah Annexation" campaign, backed by influential business owners and rural landholders, has kept pressure on city officials. While city leaders argue they can deliver better roads, policing and municipal services than the county can, these critics call annexation a top-down land grab that sidelines public input and concentrates power at City Hall.

Ross Liberty, the owner of Factory Pipe - a high-performance exhaust manufacturer located just outside city limits - has emerged as one of annexation's most vocal opponents. He now serves on the steering committee of "No Ukiah Annexation," whose tagline is "Stop Ukiah's Power Grab."

"No Ukiah Annexation" signs line a city street, reflecting growing grassroots pushback to the proposal. (Matt LaFever/SFGATE)

"Those the City plans to annex have not voted directly or indirectly on the massive debt the City has taken on," Liberty wrote to SFGATE. "But through annexation the City plans to impose that debt upon us. Classic taxation without representation."

City officials insist their intentions are pure. Ukiah Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley told SFGATE in an email that the goal is to "unify the urbanized areas in and around the City of Ukiah and streamline the provision of municipal services."

She pointed to the odd realities that come with the current patchwork of city and county oversight: "There are urban neighborhoods-city streets if you will-where one side of the street calls the police department for assistance and one calls the Sheriff's department… where one side of the street has plenty of water, even in a drought, while the other side is rationing and letting their garden die." 

Councilmember Mari Rodin framed annexation as both practical and overdue. In an email to SFGATE, she called it "an essential step in unifying the urbanized portions of the Valley," saying it would "improve the quality of the roads," "improve police protection," "stop the urban sprawl," and "promote economic development."

Part of the city's argument rests on what the county's up against. Mendocino County Department of Transportation is responsible for more than 1,000 miles of roads. The county Planning and Building Department has to stretch across a patchwork of rural, urban and suburban areas, often juggling competing priorities. All the while, the county is facing a multimillion-dollar deficit that's straining its ability to deliver services. City leaders say they're better positioned to provide faster, more consistent service for annexed neighborhoods.

Yet dissenters still feel overruled.

Ukiah residents press a city official for answers during an annexation workshop. (Matt LaFever/SFGATE)

Estelle Clifton, president of the Mendocino County Farm Bureau, has been blunt about where her organization stands: "Our membership does not want agricultural land within the city limits," she told SFGATE over the phone.

For Clifton, the fight is about more than farms - it's about protecting the soul of the valley. "It's inappropriate for a municipality to have agricultural zoning in their boundary," she told SFGATE, warning that annexation could swap vineyards and orchards for sidewalks and subdivisions.

Clifton sees her group as a collection of "open space" advocates working to "limit paving" and urban sprawl. She argues that the bureau's resistance to annexation helps protect watersheds and wildlife corridors.

Liberty, the owner of Factory Pipe, told SFGATE that his company generates "80 living-wage jobs in our community." Because it operates outside city limits, Factory Pipe avoids business taxes. Annexation would put it on the hook for a gross receipts tax, which Liberty takes exception to.

 "When the city sees me," he said, "they see me as a burden that needs to be mitigated with tax."

"The City in no way ever sought input from those they decided to annex," he later wrote to SFGATE in a text message. "When I found out they planned to annex me I made my opposition clear to which they said I have no choice and, ‘You're in the map to be annexed.'"

Rodin, the city councilmember, fired back, telling SFGATE that Liberty's opposition has less to do with civic concern and more to do with protecting a "cozy relationship" he enjoys with county officials. "He would like to maintain the relationship he currently enjoys with the County's Planning and Building Department because it allows his projects to avoid the scrutiny that everyone else is subject to," she said, pointing to Liberty's proposed Amazon warehouse at a former Masonite manufacturing plant as a prime example.

A large banner reading "No Ukiah Annexation" stretches along a field south of city limits, signaling rural resistance to the plan. (Matt LaFever/SFGATE)

When SFGATE asked Liberty about Rodin's characterization, he didn't dispute having a good rapport with Mendocino County staff. But he pushed back hard on Rodin's conclusion.

"I do enjoy a good relationship with the County in general," he told SFGATE. "To say my relationship allows ‘my projects to avoid the scrutiny that everyone else is subject to' is untrue and libelous. Council member Rodin ought to consider her words carefully before making such claims."

Broken promises

At the city of Ukiah's second annexation workshop on June 19, officials promised dialogue. Instead, they laid down rules: no comments, no speeches, only questions. The message landed poorly, and tensions in the room quickly rose, exposing a growing divide between city leadership and the residents - both from Ukiah and the surrounding areas - who oppose the annexation plan.

Resident Kerri Vau took the microphone and suggested city staff "get a pulse of what the community feels" by asking attendees in the room to raise their hands to signal if they oppose annexation. A city official responded by simply asking Vau whether she'd actually asked a question. Once it was cleared up that she had no question but had only made a statement, the city quickly shifted to the next speaker.

Ken McCormick, a Ukiah resident, stepped up to the mic and sidestepped the city's rule by making Vau's same request but in interrogatory form: "Can everyone in the room, except at the head table, who's in favor of the annexation from what you see now, raise your hand?"

No hands went up.

He turned to face city officials. "I'm going to ask the people at the front table to ask yourself a question," he said. "Why would you want to move forward with this?"

Another coordinated effort to stop annexation has come from Mendo Matters, a newly formed coalition of Mendocino County residents who describe their mission as ensuring that "entrepreneurs, small business owners, and working individuals have a seat at the table." Vau is the chair of the group, whose leadership includes real estate agents, a prominent gym owner and a major landholder in the Ukiah Valley. 

A view of Ukiah, Calif., during a misty morning. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

In a July 1 letter to city leaders, the group demanded that Ukiah "immediately halt all annexation activities and initiate a fundamentally new process - one that is slower, more transparent, and community-driven." Vau told SFGATE the city has yet to respond. In a follow-up email, she wrote in all caps: "SILENCE IS NOT TRANSPARENCY. THE COMMUNITY DESERVES ANSWERS, AND OUR CONCERNS CANNOT BE IGNORED. WE ARE CALLING ON THE CITY OF UKIAH TO RESPOND PUBLICLY AND CLEARLY. YOUR SILENCE SPEAKS VOLUMES, IT'S TIME TO SPEAK UP!"

As backlash mounted, the city of Ukiah hit pause. On June 23 - just days after a packed room of residents refused to raise their hands in support of annexation, and two days before a key Planning Commission vote - officials abruptly pulled the item, citing a need for "more time" to engage the community. In a news release, Mayor Doug Crane tried to strike a conciliatory tone, promising the process would now be "open, transparent, and inclusive" and thanking the public for their interest.

Councilmember Heather Criss tried to strike a diplomatic tone. "I 100% believe in democracy," she told SFGATE over the phone. "And if it gets to the point where we put forth an application and the threshold of people in those areas say they don't want it, that's democracy at work."

In a July 25 news release, the city of Ukiah said it will scale back the annexation area and won't submit a proposal this summer as planned. "We recognize the need for deeper discussion about how and where services will be responsibly delivered to the community, which is really what this is all about," Rodin said in the release.

County residents would argue there's no need for "deeper discussion" as they've already been rather clear. Just take a drive down Oak Knoll Road, a winding stretch outside the main area of Ukiah. There, south of city limits, the message is clear. Yard after yard, block after block, the signs scream back at City Hall in bold letters: "No Ukiah Annexation."

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