Municipal Government

Plain English Breakdown

Checked against official source text during the last sync.

Tourism Development Authority Deannexation Act

This bill allows tourism development authorities to ask municipalities to deannex their property under certain conditions and sets rules for how this process works.

What This Bill Does

• Allows a tourism development authority that owns land within a city's limits to petition the city to remove that land from the city’s control if it doesn't create an area surrounded by the city.
• Requires the petition to include a map of the property being deannexed.
• Gives the municipality 30 days to determine any debt owed for existing projects after receiving the petition.
• Makes the deannexation effective 60 days after the municipality receives the petition.

Who It Names or Affects

• Tourism development authorities that own land within city limits
• Municipalities where tourism development authority property is located

Terms To Know

Deannexation

The process of removing a piece of land from the boundaries of a municipality.

Tourism Development Authority

A group formed to promote and develop tourism in an area.

Limits and Unknowns

• It's hard to know exactly how much money cities might lose if they deannex property.
• The bill doesn't say who will pay for services after the land is no longer part of a city.

Official Summary Text

This bill authorizes

a
tourism development authority owning a tract of real property, of which all or any portion is contained within the incorporated territory of a municipality,
to
petition the municipality to deannex
the
property if the deannexation does not create an area o
f unincorporated territory that is completely surrounded by municipal boundaries.

The petition must include a map of the plat seeking deannexation.

Upon receiving the petition,
this bill requires
the municipality
to
determine the debt amount owed pursua
nt to
existing law,
if any, within 30

days.
Existing law generally authorizes a
municipality
to
continue to levy and collect taxes on
deannexed
property in the excluded territory to pay the excluded territory's proportion of debt newly contracted after th
e territory was annexed and prior to the exclusion.

The deannexation of the property becomes operative 60 days after receipt of the petition by the municipality.

Except for responsibility for debt newly contracted after the territory was annexed and pri
or to the surrender of jurisdiction,
this bill provides that
all municipal jurisdiction ceases over the territory excluded from the municipality's corporate limits on the operative date of the contraction accomplished through the petition.

Current Bill Text

SENATE BILL 965
By Hatcher

HOUSE BILL 980
By Stinnett

HB0980
003012
- 1 -

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 6,
Chapter 51 and Title 7, Chapter 69, relative to
tourism development authorities.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 7, Chapter 69, is amended by adding
the following as a new section:
(a) A tourism development authority formed pursuant to this chapter owning a
tract of real property, of which all or any portion thereof is contained within the
incorporated territory of a municipality, may petition the municipality to deannex such
property if the deannexation of the property does not create an area of unincorporated
territory that is completely surrounded by municipal boundaries.
(b) The petition must include a map of the plat seeking deannexation.
(c) Upon receiving the petition for deannexation, the municipality shall determine
the debt amount owed pursuant to § 6-51-204(a), if any, within thirty (30) days.
(d) The deannexation of the property becomes operative sixty (60) days after
receipt of the petition by the municipality.
(e) Except for responsibility for debt newly contracted after the territory was
annexed and prior to the surrender of jurisdiction, all municipal jurisdiction ceases over
the territory excluded from the municipality's corporate limits on the operative date of the
contraction accomplished through the petition described in this section.
SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.