RELATED: Fairfield to annex land for dog park
The city wanted jurisdiction so it could patrol the area and enforce its own laws.
“The reason we want to annex it is we want to be able to serve it,” Wendling said. “We don’t want to put a big investment of taxpayer dollars into property that’s outside our jurisdiction.”
He said while townships generally oppose having any land taken, Fairfield Twp. trustees understood the reason for it.
“The township is not deriving any revenues, there’s really no benefit,” he said. “They don’t serve the property, there’s just really no benefit to them, other than it is within their current boundaries.”
Fairfield Twp. Administrator Julie Vonderhaar said in this instance the annexation makes sense and is part of the larger picture between the two governments. A Joint Economic Development District (JEDD) agreement is in the works right now.
“Annexation is never a word that anyone wants to hear,” she said. “But this one is being negotiated into this JEDD, so we’re not just handing over land. There’s benefits to the township…”
County Commissioner T.C. Rogers, just before the commissioners voted to approve the annexation, asked if it isn’t too “easy” for municipalities to take properties from townships. He cited the current lawsuit between the city of Hamilton and St. Clair Twp., where the township is saying the city owes it 12 years worth of tax revenues because of past annexations.
Commissioner Don Dixon, formerly a Fairfield Twp. trustee, said laws have changed through the years to protect townships from becoming extinct. He said it wasn’t as easy as just passing a resolution, public hearings and other procedural requirements were in place, but there wasn’t really a way for an annexation to be stopped.
He said about 10 years ago the legislature “levelled the playing field.”
“There have been two or three changes in the last 10 years maybe that has given the townships different ways to object to annexations and the way the cities can do it…,” Dixon said adding back then municipalities were gobbling up unincorporated townships almost unchecked. “It was when the townships and the cities were battling every day and annexation was the biggest issue, it had all the communities divided.”
St. Clair Twp. and Hamilton are still divided over a lawsuit filed last year. The township is trying to recoup money they believe they are owed because the county auditor adjusted boundaries — and taxes — after annexations without county commissioner approval. The same thing happened with Fairfield, Hanover and Ross townships but they haven’t joined the battle.
MORE: Hamilton claims “financial distress” in court documents
Assistant Prosecutor Roger Gates said the township has been in dire financial straits and they were looking for ways to beef up their revenue and that’s why the lawsuit was filed. The suit brought to light a long standing practice in the county that has since been changed.
He said as property was annexed the parcels were assigned Hamilton parcel numbers and “they didn’t recognize in that process there was an overlapping taxing district.”
“A practice had developed over a number of years that as territories were annexed to the city, they were treated as though they were no longer a part of the township… It’s not like somebody made a mistake all of a sudden, it was a practice that had been going on for years, how long we don’t know exactly…,” Gates said. “They’ve corrected it.”
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