Change forced annexations

Idaho, Tennessee and Indiana are the last three states that allow forced annexations.

Idaho’s 50-222 statute has three ways of annexation: (1) If property owners can volunteer their property; (2) If 100 or more parcels are being annexed by a city, the property owners get a chance to vote yes or no on the annexation; or (3) If 99 or fewer parcels are being annexed, the city will annex the properties and then the property owners, if not wishing to be annexed, have to hire an attorney and object to the annexation if they are unable to go through the process on their own.

I have a draft (DRMPN042) that I will present before the Idaho House and Senate committees to add a new section – 50-221A – to 50-222 that would have the cities with less than 8,000 population that are trying to annex 99 or fewer private properties to make it mandatory that if 25 percent or more of the property owners do not want to be annexed, it would allow them a chance to vote yes or no.

Please contact your legislators if you would like to see this draft converted into a bill in the Idaho Legislature.

Ken Harvey

Orofino, Idaho