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Monday, September 20, 2010
Ind. Courts - "Deed covenants argued in Covered Bridge annexation case"
Ben Zion Hershberg reported Sept. 17th in the Louisville Courier Journal in a story that begins:
Lawyers for the town of Sellersburg and residents of the Covered Bridge and Willows of Covered Bridge subdivisions argued Friday about whether the residents can legally fight annexation by the town.
To do so, Sellersburg lawyer Perry McCall said, at least 504 valid signatures from residents of the roughly 1,800-acre area that the Town Council voted to annex in December must be on a petition opposing the annexation.
But McCall said 496 of the 632 signatures gathered by the residents aren’t valid because deeds to their lots include covenants saying the property owners can’t fight annexation by Sellersburg, which provides them sewer service. The annexation also included lots between Sellersburg and Covered Bridge, but that area isn’t as heavily populated as the two subdivisions.
“No attempts to change those covenants” have been made by the property owners, McCall told Special Judge Roger Davis. He asked the judge to dismiss the residents’ petition.
But Andrew Wright, the lawyer for the residents, said state law requires that the agreements between the town and the subdivision’s developer on which the covenants were based to be on file with the county recorder, or the covenants can’t be enforced.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 20, 2010 08:21 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts