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Monday, April 14, 2008
Ind. Decisions - "Jeffersonville will ask the Indiana Supreme Court this week to immediately review the city's annexation of the Oak Park Conservancy"
Ben Zion Hershberg of the Louisville Courier Journal, writes in a lengthy story today:
Larry Wilder, the lawyer for Jeffersonville, said he expects to file the request with the Supreme Court by midweek and the city hopes to avoid a lengthy appeal of a lower-court ruling in favor of the annexation."It is of grave public importance" for the Supreme Court to make the state's annexation laws as clear as possible, Wilder said.
If the court accepts the request, the case would bypass the Indiana Court of Appeals, possibly cutting the appeal process to a year, Wilder said.
Bruce Herdt, a leader of efforts to challenge the annexation, said he's not concerned about which court considers the appeal first.
The main goal, Herdt said, is that "we'd like everyone to know what a problem the annexation law has become" in Indiana.
Herdt said his experience leads him to believe the courts aren't willing to oversee annexations.
The Jeffersonville City Council voted last year to annex about 9,000 residents and 7,800 acres in six areas mostly east of the city's old boundaries, with the annexation to take effect Jan. 1.
Residents of the Oak Park Conservancy, immediately southeast of Jeffersonville, and of Bethany Farms, a subdivision farther east, off Ind. 62, challenged the annexation.
Clark County Circuit Judge Daniel Donahue rejected the challenge by residents of the Oak Park Conservancy in February because the signatures of 2,600 residents opposed to the annexation were filed two days after a deadline. * * *
The specific issue Donahue based his decision on -- that the required signatures of the annexation opponents were filed late by Wilson, the lawyer for the residents -- is new, Wilder said.
Wilson argued during a hearing in February that the signatures were compiled by the deadline. He didn't have time to copy them all by the deadline and argued that he had the right to file them as a timely amendment to the lawsuit against the annexation, which was filed on time.
Wilder argued that state law sets a strict deadline for submitting signatures to the court, and Donahue agreed with his view. Wilson couldn't be reached for comment Friday.
While the appeal of Donahue's decision works its way to a higher court, the legal challenge by residents of the Bethany Farms area is still to be considered.
The Bethany Farms residents -- who aren't being annexed themselves -- are arguing that Jeffersonville's annexation of about 160 acres of neighboring land is improper because the property isn't contiguous to Jeffersonville's old boundaries, as required by state law.
They also are arguing that zoning was approved for the area improperly by the City Council because the residents and other neighbors weren't notified about the zoning changes, as required by law.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 14, 2008 11:57 AM
Posted to Ind. Trial Ct. Decisions