The House J 2 Committee met this morning for what chair Rick Glazier (D Cumberland) described as Annexation Week. He set out a schedule for the week to consider three annexation bills, HB 525, 727, and 645. Tomorrow, parts of all three will be rolled into one bill with public comments, amendments and a vote late on Thursday.
The best bill, HB 645, amends annexation laws to require meaningful services and meaningful oversight by county commissions. Cities would be required to successfully complete one annexation before they can start another.
House Bill 727 falls short of offering protections for property owners but provides plenty of benefits for municipalities including reporting requirements (but no oversight) which services and when they’re provided. Most interesting is a provision that says a city can contract with a property owner to provide water and sewer services and require an agreement with that property owner that they would never appeal an annexation and that prohibition would run with the property so any subsequent owners would be bound by the agreement to never appeal as well.
House Bill 525 requires an annexation if 75 percent of homeowners want it and allows a city to annex if 75 percent of residents want it – of course, that is no longer a forced annexation. A subdivision could not be split by annexation. All financial estimates must use a five year time frame.
The discussion will continue this week in this committee and the Senate also considers annexation bills this week. See Daren’s Spotlight on meaningful reform here. Will we see real reform that protects property rights or new laws to empower municipalities or will we see compromises that no one is happy with and does nothing?
