Mo. Rev. Stat. § 72.080 — MO Code / Chapter 72 / Section 72.080
72.080 Cities and towns may be incorporated in their respective classes — ...
Status: in_force

72.080. Cities and towns may be incorporated in their respective classes — exception, certain cities must comply with boundary change law — exception, Cass County — owners of majority of certain class of property may object to incorporation, cause of action — definition — contents of petition. — 1. Any unincorporated city, town, or other area of the state may, except as otherwise provided in sections 72.400 to 72.420 , become a city of the class to which its population would entitle it pursuant to this chapter, and be incorporated pursuant to the law for the government of cities of that class, in the following manner: whenever a number of voters equal to fifteen percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election in the area proposed to be incorporated shall present a petition to the governing body of the county in which such city, town, or area is situated, such petition shall describe, by metes and bounds, the area to be incorporated and be accompanied by a plat thereof, shall state the approximate population and the assessed valuation of all real and personal property in the area and shall state facts showing that the proposed city shall have the ability to furnish normal municipal services within a reasonable time after its incorporation is to become effective and praying that the question be submitted to determine if it may be incorporated. If the governing body shall be satisfied that a number of voters equal to fifteen percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election in the area proposed to be incorporated have signed such petition, the governing body shall submit the question to the voters.

2. The county may make changes in the petition to correct technical errors or to redefine the metes and bounds of the area to be incorporated to reflect other boundary changes occurring within six months prior to the time of filing the petition. Petitions submitted by proposing agents may be submitted with exclusions for the signatures collected in areas originally included in the proposal but subsequently annexed or incorporated separately as a city, town or village, although the governing body shall be satisfied as to the sufficiency of the signatures for the final proposed area. If a majority of the voters voting on the question vote for incorporation, the governing body shall declare such city, town, or other area incorporated, designating in such order the metes and bounds thereof, and thenceforth the inhabitants within such bounds shall be a body politic and incorporate, by the name and style of "the city of ______", or "the town of ______", and the first officers of such city or town shall be designated by the order of the governing body, who shall hold their offices until the next municipal election and until their successors shall be duly elected and qualified. The county shall pay the costs of the election.

3. In any county with a charter form of government where fifty or more cities, towns and villages have been incorporated, an unincorporated city, town or other area of the state shall not be incorporated except as provided in sections 72.400 to 72.420 .

4. Any unincorporated area with a private eighteen-hole golf course community and with at least a one hundred acre lake located within any county of the first classification with more than eighty-two thousand but less than eighty-two thousand one hundred inhabitants may incorporate as a city of the class to which its population would entitle it pursuant to this chapter notwithstanding any proposed annexation of the unincorporated area by any city of the third or fourth classification or any home rule city with more than four hundred thousand inhabitants and located in more than one county. If any city of the third or fourth classification or any home rule city with more than four hundred thousand inhabitants and located in more than one county proposes annexation by ordinance or resolution of any unincorporated area as defined in this subsection, no such annexation shall become effective until and only after a majority of the qualified voters in the unincorporated area proposed to be incorporated fail to approve or oppose the proposed incorporation by a majority vote in the election described in subsection 2 of this section.

5. Prior to the election described in subsection 2 of this section, if the owner or owners of either the majority of the commercial or the majority of the agricultural classification of real property in the proposed area to be incorporated object to such incorporation, such owner or owners may file an action in the circuit court of the county in which such unincorporated area is situated, pursuant to chapter 527 , praying for a declaratory judgment requesting that such incorporation be declared unreasonable by the court. As used in this subsection, a "majority of the commercial or agricultural classification" means a majority as determined by the assessed valuation of the tracts of real property in either classification to be determined by the assessments made according to chapter 137 . The petition in such action shall state facts showing that such incorporation including the real property owned by the petitioners is not reasonable based on the same criteria as specified in subsection 3 of section 72.403 and is not necessary to the proper development of the city or town. If the circuit court finds that such inclusion is not reasonable and necessary, it may enjoin the incorporation or require the petition requesting the incorporation to be resubmitted excluding all or part of the property of the petitioners from the proposed incorporation.

(RSMo 1939 § 6217, A.L. 1971 H.B. 28, A.L. 1978 H.B. 971, A.L. 1989 H.B. 487, A.L. 1993 S.B. 219, A.L. 1995 H.B. 446, A.L. 1998 S.B. 809, A.L. 2003 H.B. 166 merged with S.B. 238, A.L. 2007 S.B. 22, A.L. 2008 S.B. 765) Prior revisions: 1929 § 6095; 1919 § 7615; 1909 § 8529 (1976) Held that an appeal from an order of a county court or county council's order relative to an incorporation action under § 72.080 must be appealed under § 49.230 and administrative review under ch. 536 is not available. In re Incorporation of City of River Bend (A.), 530 S.W.2d 704. (1985) A proposed city does not have to have tax money in place in order for an incorporation to be proper. Incorporation of Maryland Heights v. Von Romer (Mo. App.), 687 S.W.2d 600.