INDIANAPOLIS -- Involuntary annexations could be abolished in Indiana if the recommendations of a government study committee are followed by the State Legislature during the 2015 session.
In the committee’s third and final meeting last week, the members approved several recommendations to alter Indiana’s annexation code. Chief among them would be the possible elimination of involuntary annexations and dropping the percentage of homeowners required for a remonstrance.
Recommendation No. 1, one of 17 adopted in the committee’s final report, calls for any municipality to collect signatures from 51 percent of affected property owners before beginning any annexation process. This would eliminate involuntary annexations, since 51 percent is currently the threshold for a voluntary annexation in Indiana.
Recommendation No. 4 would lower the percentage of homeowners needed for a remonstrance from 65 percent to 51 percent. The committee members believe this would make it much easier for residents to fight annexation.
Committee member Rep. Bob Cherry, R-Greenfield, said the percentages needed should be the same, meaning if it takes 65 percent of the property owners to remonstrate it should take 65 percent to get an annexation started.
“I think it needs to be majority rules,” said Cherry, whose district includes the southern portion of Madison County.
Cherry said overall he was pleased with the final report from the committee. He said new rules governing annexation in the state are long overdue.
The recommendations will be put into a bill when the session convenes in January. The language of the bill will be hashed out in various committees. It’s possible that the proposal would call for the abolition of involuntary annexations.
“I think we’ve had an excellent and thorough discussion on the issues so far,” committee chair Rep. Sharon Negele (R-Attica) said. “But we’ve got a lot of work left to do.”
Other committee recommendations would:
• Require municipalities to let the public know about impending annexations six months before the drafting of a fiscal plan.
• Mandate that cities and towns not count an annexation until all legal resources available to remonstrants have been exhausted.
• Require the approval of remonstrants to alter a fiscal plan.
Cherry also wants legislation to address how municipalities attempting to annex the same area of land should proceed.
“Something is needed there,” Cherry said. “But that may be an issue for another day and another study committee.”
Cherry’s district has seen plenty of fighting among municipalities over available land. This past spring, land near Interstate 69 was eyed by Lapel, Pendleton and Ingalls. Legal battles have raged in the past few years among Anderson, Lapel and Ingalls.
Ultimately, the legislative committee recommended that the issue of how to manage annexation competition be assigned to a 2015 summer study committee.
Several residents of the Brownsburg area, which has seen many annexations recently, attended the meeting and asked for the committee to abolish involuntary annexation.
“Indiana is one of only two states in the U.S. with involuntary annexation,” said Curt Disser, one of the residents protesting the Brownsburg annexations. “These annexations are driven by one factor: money for the municipalities.”