by Gary Taylor
SF 2265, the Smart Planning bill, passed out of the House Local Government Committee by a vote of 11-10, with all Republicans and one Democrat voting “no.” It now moves on to consideration by the full House.
The Governor signed the severance/annexation bill (HF 2376) into law yesterday.
Does the bill require that a city maintain it’s continuity? For example, the City of Hiawatha is nearly surrounded by the Cities of Cedar Rapids and Robins. They have one parcel of land that they annexed that opened up a growth corridor on their northwest Corp Limit. At the time of annexation, that one parcel owner was “involuntary” and wanted to annex to the City of Cedar Rapids. Had he been allowed to annex to Cedar Rapids it would have blocked any future expansion of Corporate Limits for Hiawatha.
So what happens if this land is now severed\annexed into Cedar Rapids, but Hiawatha has annexed territory beyond that. Thereby making a part of the city not contiguous with the rest of the city?