Disconnection from Statutory Municipality

Plain English Breakdown

The official text does not specify the exact effective date, only stating it applies to cases commenced on or after 'the applicable effective date'.

Changes to Rules for Removing Farm Land from Cities and Towns

This law stops land owners in urban renewal areas or special service districts from using a court process to leave a city, requiring them instead to use an application process that includes notifying those agencies.

What This Bill Does

• Removes the option for land owners to ask a district court to disconnect their farm land if it is inside an urban renewal area or served by a special district.
• Requires these specific land owners to apply directly to the city or town government instead of going through the courts.
• Adds a rule that land owners must send copies of their disconnection application to any affected urban renewal authority, in addition to county commissioners and special districts.
• Allows county commissioners, special districts, and urban renewal authorities to request meetings with the owner and city officials before a decision is made.
• States that if these agencies do not ask for a meeting, they agree that the land removal will not hurt them.

Who It Names or Affects

• Owners of agricultural or farm land located within or next to statutory cities or towns.
• Statutory municipalities (cities and towns) handling disconnection requests.
• Urban renewal authorities with plans covering specific tracts of land.
• Special districts that provide services to the land in question.

Terms To Know

Disconnection by court decree

A process where a land owner asks a judge to remove their property from city limits, which is no longer available for certain lands under this law.

Disconnection by ordinance

A process where a land owner applies directly to the city government for an official rule change to leave the city.

Urban renewal authority

An agency that creates plans to improve or redevelop specific areas of land.

Limits and Unknowns

• The law only applies to disconnection requests started on or after the date it becomes effective.
• It does not change rules for farm land that is not in an urban renewal area or served by a special district.
• The specific effective date of this law is not listed in the provided text.

Official Summary Text

Under current law, the owners of certain tracts of agricultural or farm land within and adjacent to the boundary of a statutory town or statutory city may petition the district court for the county to disconnect the land from the town or city (disconnection by court decree). The act modifies the disconnection by court decree process so that this process is not available for any tract of land that is included within the boundaries of an urban renewal area described in an urban renewal plan of an urban renewal authority (affected urban renewal authority) or a special district that, by its service plan or pursuant to an intergovernmental agreement, is or will be expected to provide service to the tract of land (affected special district). Instead of using the disconnection by court decree process, owners of these tracts of land must use the process for disconnection applications from a statutory municipality.
Under current law, the owner of a tract of land within and adjacent to the boundary of a statutory municipality may apply to the governing body of the municipality for the enactment of an ordinance disconnecting the tract of land from the municipality (disconnection by ordinance). The act also modifies this disconnection by ordinance process by requiring that, in addition to the existing requirement that an owner provide notice and a copy of the disconnection application to the board of county commissioners of the county in which the tract of land is located and to the board of directors of any affected special district, the owner seeking disconnection must also provide notice and a copy of the disconnection application to any affected urban renewal authority. Upon receiving the notice and application, these entities may request a meeting with the owner of the land and the governing body of the municipality to discuss and address any negative impacts that would result from the disconnection, including any change in the level or extent of services being provided to the tract of land that is the subject of the disconnection application or any interference with the implementation of an urban renewal plan of an affected urban renewal authority. The failure of these entities to request a meeting constitutes an acknowledgment that the disconnection will not adversely affect them.
The act applies to applications for disconnection from a statutory municipality and petitions for disconnection from a statutory city or town commenced on or after the applicable effective date of the act.
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)