In re Annex. Certain Territory City Muncie
| Decision Date | 06 October 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. 18A02-0901-CV-89.,18A02-0901-CV-89. |
| Citation | 914 N.E.2d 796 |
| Parties | In re ANNEXATION OF CERTAIN TERRITORY TO The CITY OF MUNCIE, INDIANA, City of Muncie, Appellant-Respondent, v. Certain Halteman Village Section I and Brewington Woods Landowners, Appellees-Petitioners. |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
Frank E. Gilkison, Daniel J. Gibson, Beasley & Gilkison LLP, Muncie, IN, Attorneys for Appellant.
Nicholas K. Kile, Barnes & Thornburg LLP, Bryan H. Babb, Stephen C. Unger, Bose McKinney & Evans LLP, Jo Angela Woods, Indiana Municipal Lawyers Association Inc., Indianapolis, IN, Douglas C. Haney, City of Carmel Department of Law, Carmel, IN, Douglas D. Church, Church Church Hittle & Antrim, Fishers, IN, Attorneys for Amici Curiae City of Carmel, Town of Fishers, and Indiana Municipal Lawyers Association.
David W. Stone IV, Stone Law Office & Legal Research, Anderson, IN, Attorney for Appellees.
Appellant-respondent City of Muncie (Muncie) appeals the trial court's order granting the remonstrance petitions of appellee-petitioners (collectively, the Landowners) and declaring Muncie's Ordinance Numbers 11-07 and 12-07 (collectively, the Ordinances) to be invalid. Muncie argues that the trial court erred by finding that it failed to meet its statutory burden contained within Indiana Code section 36-4-3-13 and by finding that the Landowners met their burden contained within the same statute. Finding that Muncie met its burden and the Landowners failed to meet theirs, we reverse.
Brewington Woods (Brewington) and Halteman Village Section I (Halteman) are residential neighborhoods located on the outskirts of Muncie. Both areas are more than 25% contiguous to Muncie's existing corporate limits. Brewington has an area of 37.2 acres and an estimated population of 133; Halteman has an area of 62.4 acres and a population of 225.
On May 7, 2007, the Muncie Common Council (the Council) adopted Fiscal Plans for the annexation of Brewington and Halteman and introduced ordinances to accomplish the annexation. On September 10, 2007, the Council adopted the Ordinances. Ordinance 11-07 annexed Brewington and Ordinance 12-07 annexed Halteman to Muncie.
On December 18, 2007, Brewington landowners filed a petition for remonstrance against Ordinance 11-07, and on the same date, Halteman landowners filed a petition for remonstrance against Ordinance 12-07. The cases were consolidated, and a bench trial was held on November 20 and 21, 2008. On January 5, 2009, the trial court granted the Landowners' respective petitions, finding and concluding, in pertinent part, as follows:
14. The City retained HNTB Corporation to prepare fiscal plans for [Brewington and Halteman] in early 2007.
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21. That HNTB did not take into consideration any property tax caps when developing the fiscal plans.
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26. That the City of Muncie has not taken any steps to amend the fiscal plans for the neighborhoods to reflect the property tax caps adopted into law.
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28. That the fiscal plans do not account for reduction of revenue that the City of Muncie will experience as a result of property tax caps.
29. That the fiscal plans did not account for the loss of revenue to be received by the City of Muncie when determining the cost of providing services to [Brewington and Halteman] and the methods of financing said services.
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34. That there currently exists an insufficient number of fire hydrants in [Brewington and Halteman] for the City of Muncie to provide similar fire protection service as it does to other areas within the City of Muncie's boundaries.
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36. That the City of Muncie will have to install at least three additional fire hydrants in [Brewington and Halteman]....
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39. That the City of Muncie has no control over the installation of fire hydrants as the fire hydrants are installed by Indiana-American Water Company.
40. That the City of Muncie cannot guarantee that the fire hydrants will be installed within one year as Indiana-American Water Company is the entity that installs the fire hydrants.
41. That the City of Muncie will provide fire protection services to [Brewington and Halteman] by using pumper trucks through a relay method for transporting water (hereinafter "Relay Method") from a hydrant to the burning structure until fire hydrants are installed in the neighborhoods.
42. That the Relay Method of fire fighting is not a fire fighting service provided in a manner equivalent in standard and scope of the fire fighting service as the City of Muncie provides to other areas within the City of Muncie.
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44. That the fiscal plans do not account for any additional day-to-day expenses that may be incurred by the City of Muncie to provide services to this area as said expenses were categorized by the City of Muncie's department heads as "insignificant."
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57. That there are land owners in [Brewington and Halteman] that are paying less than one percent (1%) of their assessed values in real estate taxes.
58. That the land owners would be required to pay more taxes in order to reach the one percent property tax cap maximum when annexed by the City of Muncie.
59. That there are land owners in [Brewington and Halteman] that have fixed incomes and any increased property tax payments required by the annexation would have a significant financial impact on them.
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9. That the fiscal plans do not account for any additional day-to-day expenses that may be incurred by the City of Muncie to provide services to [Brewington and Halteman] pursuant to Indiana Code § 36-4-3-13(d)(1).
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20. That the City of Muncie has not taken any steps to amend the fiscal plans for [Brewington and Halteman] to reflect the property tax caps adopted into law....
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23. That the fiscal plans did not account for the loss of revenue to be received by the City of Muncie [as a result of property tax caps] when determining the cost of providing services to [Brewington and Halteman] to the neighborhoods and the method of financing said services.
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31. That the City of Muncie cannot provide fire service to the area proposed for annexation in a manner consistent with the standard and scope of services provided to the City of Muncie as a whole as required by Indiana Code § 36-4-3-13(d)(4).
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42. That the land owners have shown that at least sixty-five percent of the owners of land in [Brewington and Halteman] continue to oppose the annexation as required by Indiana Code § 36-4-3-13(e)(2)(D).
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44. That the City of Muncie failed to meet its burden of proof with respect to its compliance with Indiana Code § 36-4-3-13.
45. That the land owners have met their burden to show they have met the requirements of Indiana Code § 36-4-3-13(e).
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that the remonstrance petitions are sustained and [the Ordinances] are not valid.
Appellant's App. p. 28-33. The City now appeals.
When, as here, the trial court enters findings of fact and conclusions of law, "we review issues of fact for sufficiency of the evidence and look to the record only for evidence favorable to the judgment." City of Fort Wayne v. Certain Southwest Annexation Area Landowners, 764 N.E.2d 221, 224 (Ind.2002). We set aside findings and judgments only when they are clearly erroneous. Id. As always, we review questions of law de novo. Id.
We conduct our review bearing in mind that annexation "is essentially a legislative function." Id. Therefore, courts play only a limited role in annexations and must afford the municipality's legislative judgment substantial deference. Id. Id.
Indiana Code section 36-4-3-13 lists the prerequisites for annexation, and the municipality bears the burden of showing that it has complied with these statutory conditions. City of Carmel v. Certain Southwest Clay Twp. Annexation Territory Landowners, 868 N.E.2d 793, 797-98 (Ind.2007). If the municipality meets the requirements of subsections 13(b)1 or 13(c)2 and subsection 13(d), the court must order the annexation to proceed, subject to the remonstrators' ability to establish all of the grounds listed in subsection 13(e). City of Carmel, 868 N.E.2d at 798.
Here, the parties stipulate that Muncie met the requirements of subsections 13(b)3 and 13(c); therefore, we will focus our analysis on subsection 13(d), which provides as follows:
(d) The requirements of this subsection are met if the evidence establishes that the municipality has developed and adopted a written fiscal plan and has established a definite policy, by resolution of the legislative body as set forth in section 3.1 of this chapter. The fiscal plan must show the following:
(1) The cost estimates of planned services to be furnished to the territory to be annexed. The plan must present itemized estimated costs for each municipal department or agency.
(2) The method or methods of financing the planned services. The plan must explain how specific and detailed expenses will be funded and must indicate the taxes, grants, and other funding to be used.
(3) The plan for the organization and extension of services. The plan must detail the specific services that will be provided and the dates the services will begin.
(4) That planned services of a noncapital nature, including police protection, fire protection, street and road maintenance, and other noncapital services normally provided within the corporate boundaries, will be provided to the annexed territory within one (1) year after the effective date of annexation and that they will be provided in a manner equivalent in standard and scope to those...
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