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Municipal annexation is a process by which a municipality acquires new territory, [1] most commonly by expanding its boundaries into an adjacent unincorporated area. This has been a common response of cities to urbanization in neighboring areas. It may be done because the neighboring urban areas seek municipal services or because a city seeks control over its suburbs or neighboring unincorporated areas.
In the United States, all local governments are considered "creatures of the state" according to Dillon's Rule, which resulted from the work of John Forrest Dillon on the law of municipal corporations. Dillon's Rule implies, among other things, that the boundaries of any jurisdiction falling under state government can be modified by state government action. For this reason, examples of municipal annexation are distinct from annexations involving sovereign states. [2]
A "shoestring annexation" is a term used for an annexation by a city, town or other municipality in which it acquires new territory that is contiguous to the existing territory but is only connected to it by a thin strip of land. [3] [4] It is sometimes called a "flagpole annexation" because the territory resembles a flagpole, in which the connection is the "pole" and the annexed territory the "flag". [5]
In some states, municipalities are prohibited from annexing land not directly connected to their existing territory. A shoestring or flagpole annexation allows the municipality to do so.
Such annexations are sometimes used when a municipality seeks to acquire unincorporated developed land, such as a newly built subdivision separated from it by undeveloped open space. They may also be used when a municipality desires to annex a commercial or industrial area without taking over intervening residential areas, so as to collect tax revenues from the businesses or industry without having to provide services (such as electricity and garbage collection) to residents. Such uses of the technique are often criticized and derided as a form of gerrymandering, and have in fact been used for the purpose of manipulating vote distribution among election precincts and districts.[ citation needed ]
A related strategy is called strip annexation, which involves annexing a narrow strip that encloses a large block of unincorporated land. Strip annexation was widely used by the municipalities of the Phoenix metropolitan area during the 1970s to preemptively gain control of large areas of land before other municipalities, without having to annex more than a thin strip surrounding a large so-called county island. The strip protected the county island from being annexed by other municipalities, thus giving the strip-annexing municipality the ability to slowly annex portions of the county island over time. One such annexation by Chandler in 1974 spurred nearby Gilbert to create the largest county island to date by annexing a strip no more than 200 feet wide that enclosed 51 square miles of unincorporated Maricopa County. The annexation was challenged in court and, although found legal, eventually led to legislation in 1980 outlawing strip annexation. Some municipalities rushed to annex before the law took effect, such as Scottsdale, which annexed a 10 foot wide strip enclosing an 86 square mile county island. [6]
The Port of Los Angeles together with the San Pedro, Wilmington and Harbor City neighborhoods of Los Angeles, are connected to the main part of the city by what is called locally the "Shoestring Strip" between Figueroa Street and Vermont Avenue and between Western and Normandie avenues to the south.
O'Hare Airport is municipally connected to the city of Chicago via a narrow strip of land, approximately 200 feet wide, along Foster Avenue from the Des Plaines River to the airport. This land was annexed in the 1950s to assure the airport was contiguous with the city to keep it under city control. The strip is bounded on the north by Rosemont and the south by Schiller Park. [7]
The Boston neighborhoods of Allston and Brighton were part of an independent town of Brighton before being annexed by Boston. They are presently connected to the remainder of the city by the Boston University campus. At the time of the annexation, Brookline extended to the Charles River and separated Boston and Brighton. As a result, a shoestring annexation was obtained by Boston from Brookline when Brighton joined Boston. This was made necessary by Brookline's refusal to join Boston a year before Brighton's annexation.
Santa Barbara Municipal Airport is connected to the city of Santa Barbara, despite being located in the center of the city of Goleta, through 300 feet wide strip of land mostly located under the Pacific Ocean. [8]
South San Diego, located next to the Mexico–United States border, is physically separated from the rest of San Diego by the cities of National City and Chula Vista. A narrow strip of land at the bottom of San Diego Bay connects these southern neighborhoods with the rest of the city.
West Grove, the western portion of the city of Garden Grove in Orange County, California, is separated from the rest of the city by the city of Stanton. The two portions of the city are connected to the rest of the city by a narrow strip of land along Garden Grove Boulevard from Beach Boulevard to Hoover Street.
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, and part of the Boston metropolitan area. An exclave of Norfolk County, Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Allston, Fenway–Kenmore, Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, and West Roxbury. The city of Newton borders Brookline to the west. It is known as the birthplace of John F. Kennedy.
Marana is a town that mostly lies in Pima County with a small portion in Pinal County, in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is located northwest of Tucson, Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population of the town was 51,908.
Beach City is a U.S. city in Chambers County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,221 at the 2020 census. It can now be considered as a part of Greater Houston.
An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. There are many unincorporated communities and areas in the United States and Canada.
Millcreek Township is a survey township in south-central Hamilton County, Ohio, that also existed as a civil township from 1810 until 1943. Once the most important township in the county, it was largely absorbed by Cincinnati and its suburbs, nominally remaining as a paper township from 1943 until 1953. It was abolished when the rest of its unincorporated territory, consisting of Wesleyan Cemetery, became part of Cincinnati. As the original survey township covers a large portion of present-day Cincinnati, references to it are frequently encountered by genealogists.
Anthony P. Hamann, better known as A. P. Hamann or Dutch, was the city manager of San Jose, California, USA, from 1950 to 1969. During his tenure, San Jose grew from a small agriculture-based city of 95,000 residents to a large economically diverse city of almost 500,000.
The term paper township refers to a civil township under Ohio law that nominally exists for certain purposes but does not act as a functioning unit of civil government. Such townships usually exist on paper as a legal fiction due to municipal annexation.
A county island is a small or large portion of an unincorporated area that is within the jurisdiction of a county, usually surrounded by adjacent areas that are incorporated into a municipality. On maps, these geopolitical anomalies will form jagged or complex borders and 'holes' in the city limits. Generally found more frequently in the western United States, county islands form in areas of expansion when previously smaller cities will annex and incorporate more land into their jurisdiction. If residents or landowners in a particular unincorporated area do not vote to incorporate with the surrounding city, the area remains unincorporated. The formation of a county island usually follows stages where it will come into being on the edge of an incorporated area, and as more territory is incorporated, be cut off from the rest of the unincorporated area within the county. These areas are not actually exclaves by definition, because they are simply unincorporated outside of a surrounding city.
Allston–Brighton is a set of two interlocking neighborhoods, Allston and Brighton, both part of the city of Boston, Massachusetts.
On October 7, 1873, Brookline, Massachusetts rejected annexation by a larger neighboring city when it voted down annexation by Boston. When its citizens voted 707-299 to keep its independence, Brookline not only stopped Boston's string of annexations, but it also set an example for wealthy suburbs throughout America. The vote was a significant event in the history of American suburbs.
The town is the basic unit of local government and local division of state authority in the six New England states. Most other U.S. states lack a direct counterpart to the New England town. New England towns overlay the entire area of a state, similar to civil townships in other states where they exist, but they are fully functioning municipal corporations, possessing powers similar to cities and counties in other states. New Jersey's system of equally powerful townships, boroughs, towns, and cities is the system which is most similar to that of New England. New England towns are often governed by a town meeting, an assembly of eligible town residents. The great majority of municipal corporations in New England are based on the town model; there, statutory forms based on the concept of a compact populated place are uncommon, though elsewhere in the U.S. they are prevalent. County government in New England states is typically weak at best, and in some states nonexistent. Connecticut, for example, has no county governments, nor does Rhode Island. Both of those states retain counties only as geographic subdivisions with no governmental authority, while Massachusetts has abolished eight of fourteen county governments so far. Counties serve mostly as dividing lines for the states' judicial systems and some other state services in the southern New England states, while providing varying services in the more sparsely populated three northern New England states.
The Allon Plan was a political proposition that outlined potential next steps for Israel after the 1967 Arab–Israeli War. It was drafted by Israeli politician Yigal Allon following Israel's seizure of territory from Syria, Jordan, and Egypt; the Israeli military had come to occupy Syria's Golan Heights, the Jordanian-annexed West Bank and the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip, and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Allon advocated a partitioning of the West Bank between Israel and Jordan, the creation of a sovereign state for Druze in the Golan Heights, and the return of most of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt.
The administrative divisions of Virginia are the areas into which the Commonwealth of Virginia, a U.S. state, is divided for political and administrative purposes. Some are local governments; others are not. However, all local governments are political subdivisions of the state.
Pearland Regional Airport is in Brazoria County, Texas, near Pearland in Greater Houston, 17 miles (27 km) south of Downtown Houston. It was formerly Clover Field.
The City of Edmonton has experienced a series of municipal boundary adjustments over its history since originally incorporating as a town in 1892 through incorporation as a city, amalgamation or annexation of other urban municipalities, annexation of rural lands from its surrounding neighbours, and separation of lands back to its rural neighbours. Its most recent annexations, which came into effect on January 1, 2019, involved acquisition of lands from predominantly Leduc County as well as Beaumont and Sturgeon County.
Anaheim Island consists of several unincorporated neighborhoods located east of the city of Anaheim in Orange County, California, United States. Established between the 1910s and 1960s, the neighborhoods are bounded by the cities of Anaheim to the east, north and west, Stanton to the southwest, and Garden Grove to the south. The Orange County Board of Supervisors has referred to these unincorporated areas as "Anaheim Island" while Orange County LAFCO has referred to them variously as "Anaheim West" and "Southwest Anaheim". The Anaheim City Planning Commission refers to the entire area in the singular as the "Garza Island". Some local residents refer to the area as the "Gaza Strip".
Municipal annexation is the legal process by which a city or other municipality acquires land as its jurisdictional territory. The annexed land is typically not part of any other municipality. In the United States and Canada, however, annexation may also involve one polity absorbing another, usually an adjacent and smaller one, and usually by vote of the residents of both polities. For example, in 1872, the city Zanesville, Ohio annexed the adjacent community of Putnam, and in 1889, the city of Toronto annexed the adjacent town of Parkdale.
The U.S. state of Texas has a total of 254 counties, many cities, and numerous special districts, the most common of which is the independent school district.
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