Agenda - 03-29-2012 - Abstract of Items

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144 29 ordinance is adopted in response to such a petition, the effective date must be within 24 months of adoption. Mandatory annexation. The city is required to annex a distressed area if the owners of at least 75% of the parcels have signed the petition. To qualify, the area must be at least one - eighth contiguous to the city's boundaries and it can be no larger than 10 percent of the city's existing land area. Upon determining that a petition meets the requirements for a mandatory annexation, the municipality has 60 days to determine whether the estimated annual debt service payment that would be required to extend water and sewer to all properties in the annexed area is less than five percent of the annual revenues of the city's water and sewer system. If so, the city must adopt an annexation ordinance within 30 days and set an effective date within 24 months of the adoption. If not, the city may decline to annex the area, provided the LGC certifies its cost estimates. If the city declines, it must make ongoing good faith efforts during the three years following the certification to secure Community Development Block Grants or other grant funding for extending water and sewer service to all parcels in the areas covered by the petition. If sufficient funding is secured so that the estimated capital cost for extension, less the funds secured, would result in an annual debt service cost of less than five percent of the annual water and sewer systems revenue for the most recent fiscal year, the governing body has 30 days to adopt an annexation ordinance for the area with an effective date no later than 24 months after the adoption of the ordinance. In any event, a city is not required to approve more than one annexation petition submitted under this provision within a 36 -month period. Services. For both of these new types of voluntary annexation, services must be provided to the area after the effective date of the annexation "in the same manner and according to the same schedules" as apply to city - initiated annexations. This appears to mean that the water and sewer opt -in process and the "no cost" provisions would apply. II. Other Changes to the Voluntary Process Ordinance effective date. In voluntary contiguous annexations other than those for distressed areas, the city may make the annexation ordinance effective immediately or on the first or second June 30 following the ordinance's passage. No shoestrings. The act applies the concept of prohibitions on "shoestrings" to voluntary annexation. It specifies that a connecting corridor consisting solely of a street or street right -of -way cannot be used to establish contiguity. It further clarifies the definition of contiguity by allowing the property to be considered contiguous if it is separated from the municipal boundary by the width of a street or street right -of -way.