Residents of Wittmann have asked the city of Surprise to annex their unincorporated community, but the request is something of a legal maneuver: organizers say they actually want nothing to do with becoming part of the city, and are instead hoping the annexation push clears the way for Wittmann to become its own incorporated town.
The effort is being led by Keep Us Rural LLC, according to ABC15 Arizona, whose organizers say their goal is not to become part of Surprise at all. The hitch is that Arizona law limits incorporation efforts by communities sitting within six miles of an existing municipality, and because Wittmann falls inside that boundary, organizers cannot simply move forward with incorporation on their own. So supporters are using the annexation process itself as a potential path toward the independence they actually want.
Jeffrey August, with Keep Us Rural LLC, laid out the strategy bluntly: “We gave them the ultimatum: it's either let us incorporate or annex us. We know the annexation will fail.” He said the motivation comes down to local control over growth. “We want a voice, we want to be able to tell the developers no big developments, no commercial warehouses,” August said, according to the outlet's reporting.
A 120-Day Clock and a County Backup Plan
Surprise now has 120 days to decide on the annexation request, and if the city does not approve it within that window, organizers say they can take their incorporation effort straight to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors instead. Surprise officials, for their part, say the city is not proactively seeking to annex the area — the request landed in the city's lap because Wittmann's situation requires it, not because Surprise is angling to expand its borders there.
That timeline traces back to Aug. 4, when organizers formally submitted their request to Surprise, the station's report notes. Keep Us Rural LLC members say incorporation would give residents greater control over development and help preserve Wittmann's rural character, the central promise driving the campaign.
Surprise Raises Red Flags Over Finances and Boundaries
City staff in Surprise have pushed back on parts of the proposal. They've questioned whether a newly formed town of Wittmann would be financially sustainable, raising doubts about organizers' salary estimates and the plan to initially rely heavily on state-shared revenue to fund municipal operations, per the same ABC15 account. That concern lines up with guidance from the Arizona League of Cities and Towns, which notes that urban revenue-sharing income tax money does not begin flowing until the start of the first full fiscal year after incorporation — meaning a brand-new town would have to get through its early days without that funding stream.
Surprise staff also flagged the shape of the proposed town itself, raising concerns about Wittmann's proposed 31.5-square-mile boundary and saying the configuration appears to create several county islands. Jeffrey August addressed the staffing question directly, saying residents have volunteered to help operate a future municipal government while the proposed town waits for state revenue to arrive. “We're not going to fail,” he said.
City Leaders Weigh Growth Plans Against Rural Identity
Surprise City Manager Andrea Davis said the stakes extend beyond Wittmann's own borders, since the community sits in an area that could play a significant role in the city's future expansion. “It really does impact how we can strategically grow, how we deal with the roadways going through — you mentioned there is the master plans we have approved,” Davis said, per ABC15's reporting. She added that incorporating Wittmann could affect long-term planning, including transportation and developments that have already received approvals.
Not every Surprise official sounds opposed to Wittmann keeping its character intact. Surprise Councilman Chris Judd said city leaders understand residents' desire to preserve Wittmann's rural identity. “I think we're all in agreement up here that we want Wittmann to stay rural,” Judd said, according to the outlet.
Part of a Larger West Valley Tug-of-War
Wittmann's incorporation push hasn't unfolded in isolation. A separate KJZZ report published on May 20, 2025, tied the incorporation campaign to local opposition against a proposed BNSF rail hub near Wittmann, with residents voicing concerns the facility would lead to overconsumption of water and create massive amounts of air pollution. More recently, KJZZ reported that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors unanimously rejected a BNSF land-use proposal near Wittmann, though the company has said that decision would not necessarily prevent a freight facility from eventually being built.
The broader tension — balancing economic development with residents' desire to preserve existing lifestyles and community character, as ABC15 has framed it — isn't unique to Wittmann. Elsewhere in Arizona, the path to incorporation has proven difficult: PHOENIX magazine has reported that New River residents have tried four times since the 1970s to incorporate, with a 2019 effort alongside neighboring Desert Hills falling short of certified votes. By contrast, Vail's incorporation made it onto the November 2023 ballot after organizers collected more than 2,000 valid signatures and the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to advance it.
For now, Wittmann's proposal faces several hurdles before the community could become an incorporated town, with Surprise's 120-day decision window still running and the possibility of a county-level push waiting in reserve. Whether Surprise approves the annexation request, and what organizers ultimately decide to do afterward, remains to be seen.
