Texas Supreme Court Issues Favorable Annexation Decision
By law, a city’s annexation plan must identify proposed annexations of areas that contain 100 or more residential dwellings. If an area contains 99 or fewer residential dwellings, however, the city is not required to place the area in an annexation plan. Section 43.052(i) of the Local Government Code prohibits a city from “dividing” an area with 100 or more residential dwellings in order to avoid the plan requirements. Specifically:
In 2005, the City of Rockwall proposed to annex an area that was not included in its annexation plan. The landowner, believing the city had violated Section 43.052(i), petitioned the city to include the area in the plan, and the city council voted to deny the request. The landowner then sought arbitration, which the city also denied. The landowner ultimately sued, attempting to force the city into arbitration.
The case hinged on whether the plan and arbitration requirements are substantive or procedural. The difference is relevant for this reason: courts have long held that an individual landowner does not have standing (the right) to sue for procedural annexation matters. The trial court in the case concluded that the requirements are procedural, but the court of appeals reversed, thus granting standing to the individual landowner.
In a decision that took more than two years to issue, the Supreme Court of Texas recently concluded in City of Rockwall v. Hughes (No. 05-0126) that the plain language of the statute controls, and that so long as a city considers and rejects a request for arbitration, the city has complied with the statute. The only available remedy for a landowner is a quo warranto proceeding (a suit brought by the district or county attorney on behalf of the state to challenge alleged procedural irregularities in an annexation).
The decision is a favorable one for Rockwall and all other cities that annex property. However, the last line of the opinion is reminiscent of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Kelo v. New London eminent domain decision in 2005 that brought on a flurry of state legislative action:
A motion for rehearing has been filed, and TML staff will continue to monitor the case and take action as necessary. For a complete guide to annexation in Texas, please visit the Legal area of this Web site, and follow the links for Land Use and Building regulations.