R2024-45 Resolution Indicating Intent to Annex an Unincorporated Territory, Setting a Hearing to consider such Annexation, and Directing Publication of Hearing Notice 3226 Desert Inn Road

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February 15, 2024 TO: Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe & Decatur City Council Members FROM: Scot Wrighton, City Manager RE: Annexations The February 20 City Council agenda includes more annexations than usual. The consent agenda has 28 separate annexation items. Of these, 6 are voluntary annexations where owners have signed water service agreements concurring in annexation; and 22 are involuntary annexations. The 22 separate involuntary annexations encompass 64 separate land tracts/lots. The owners of these parcels have not signed annexation petitions requesting annexation. We have historically approved involuntary annexations only once a year in a large group (as we are doing again on Tuesday). All involuntary annexations are fully surrounded tracts. They are the holes in the Swiss cheese. We have annexed wholly surrounded properties in the past because leaving them out of the city creates uneven service delivery and situations where property owners benefit from being in the city without paying for it. The process for involuntary annexation is different than the legal process for voluntary annexations. Involuntary annexations require a 2-step process. The first step is what is on the February 20 agenda: passage of resolutions of intent to annex and the setting a date for a public hearing (scheduled for April). The second step is to conduct the hearings and vote on the annexations. Whatever opposition is voiced by effected owners usually comes at the second step. Prior to the April hearing, the city gives written notices to owners, trustees of fire protection districts, library districts, township supervisors, highway commissioners and clerks, Macon County officials, and others, as required by law. Notice of the public hearing with the descriptions of the properties must be published as well, not less than 10 days before the April hearing and council meeting.