reglab/housing_qa huggingface dataset:
AR Code § 14-40-1205 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 6 - Annexation Proceedings by Adjoining Landowners|§ 14-40-1205. Division of smaller municipality into wards

 (a) As soon as practicable after the annexation, the council of the larger city or incorporated town shall form by ordinance the territory of the smaller municipality into such number of wards as shall seem to be to the best interest of the combined city or incorporated town, or shall change the number and boundaries of all the wards of the entire city or incorporated town, or any part of them, as shall seem to be to the best interests of the combined city or incorporated town. In such way, however, the wards shall have as nearly an equal population and assessed valuation of property as practicable and as, in the opinion of the council, would best subserve the true interest of the citizens and taxpayers of the combined city or incorporated town.  (b) The territory and inhabitants of the smaller municipal corporation shall receive that fair and just representation in the city council as the size, population, and assessed valuation of property demands, as compared with the representation accorded to other wards of the city or incorporated town.  (c) If inhabitants of the smaller municipal corporation feel aggrieved at the number of wards, or in any manner dissatisfied with the division of the territory into wards, upon petition of fifty (50) qualified electors, the circuit court is authorized to make changes in the number of wards as the justice of the case requires, in the manner provided in § 14-43-311, so far as applicable.
AR Code § 14-40-1206 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 6 - Annexation Proceedings by Adjoining Landowners|§ 14-40-1206. Plat of consolidated municipality

 (a) The council of the larger city or incorporated town shall cause a plat to be made of the entire city or incorporated town after the annexation thereto and the division into wards of the smaller municipal corporation.  (b)  (1) A certified copy of the plat shall be filed and recorded in the office of the circuit court and ex officio recorder of the county and with the Secretary of State.  (2)  (A) Thereafter, the plat shall stand, be, and remain the division of the city or incorporated town into wards, and the number and boundaries thereof, until such time as it may be afterwards changed according to law.  (B) However, a change in the boundaries of the wards of the larger city or incorporated town shall not determine or affect the time of service of any previously elected council member of any ward in the larger city or incorporated town.
AR Code § 14-40-1207 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 6 - Annexation Proceedings by Adjoining Landowners|§ 14-40-1207. Special election of council members or all city officials

 (a)  (1)  (A) Except as provided under subdivision (a)(1)(B) of this section, the city or town council shall call a special election of council members to be held at such times and places as the council may direct pursuant to a proclamation issued by the mayor in accordance with § 7-11-101 et seq., in the wards of the smaller municipality and for the election of council members from any other new wards that may be created by the council out of territory included in the larger city or incorporated town before the annexation, as provided in this subchapter.  (B) If the petition calls for a citywide election for all officials of the new consolidated city or incorporated town, then the city or town council shall call a special election pursuant to a proclamation issued by the mayor in accordance with § 7-11-101 et seq. for all city or town officials to be held at the times and places as the city or town council may direct throughout each ward of the consolidated city or incorporated town.    (2) If the implementation of the consolidation of the cities or towns is delayed, the special election for new council members to a city or town council or all city officials shall be held at least forty-five (45) days before the effective date of the consolidation.    (b) Each ward of the consolidated city or incorporated town shall have two (2) council members, to be elected in the same manner and for the same term as council members are elected in cities and incorporated towns.
AR Code § 14-40-1208 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 6 - Annexation Proceedings by Adjoining Landowners|§ 14-40-1208. Existing officers, etc

 (a) The term of office of all officers, council members, and employees of the smaller municipality and all laws in force in the smaller municipality shall cease upon and after the consolidation.  (b)  (1) Any mayor who is forced from office because of a merger of two (2) or more municipalities under this subchapter is presumed to meet the minimum service period under § 24-12-123.  (2) If the mayor who is forced from office has less than ten (10) years of actual service as mayor, then he or she is entitled to a prorated retirement benefit in an amount equal to the percentage of the mayor's actual amount of service divided by the minimum ten (10) years of service required under § 24-12-123.
AR Code § 14-40-1209 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 6 - Annexation Proceedings by Adjoining Landowners|§ 14-40-1209. Public property

 All public property of the smaller municipality shall belong to the consolidated city or incorporated town.
AR Code § 14-40-1210 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 6 - Annexation Proceedings by Adjoining Landowners|§ 14-40-1210. Payment of existing debts

 (a)  (1) The debts of each municipality owing prior to or at the time of the consolidation shall be paid by the consolidated municipality by appropriating the revenues derived from year to year from the territory and the inhabitants of what was formerly the larger municipality to the payment of the debts of the larger municipality owing before the consolidation.  (2) In like manner, the debts of the smaller municipality owing prior to and at the time of the consolidation shall be paid by appropriating the revenues derived from what was formerly the smaller municipality in such manner as to do the least injustice to the inhabitants of each former municipality in the way of a decrease in the improving or bettering of the territory as it formerly existed.    (b) In appropriating the revenues of either municipality to pay its own debts existing prior to the consolidation, neither the territory nor inhabitants of what was formerly the larger or smaller municipality shall be discriminated against in the distribution of police protection, board of health service, fire protection, public lighting, or other like public service.
AR Code § 14-40-1211 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 6 - Annexation Proceedings by Adjoining Landowners|§ 14-40-1211. Prior debts not preferred

 (a) Creditors of either municipal corporation, on account of obligations made prior to consolidation, shall not be paid sooner or shall not be permitted to enforce the collection of their debts sooner against the consolidated city or incorporated town than the separate municipality prior to consolidation could have paid its own debts or could have been forced to do so.  (b) In any proceeding in court, by mandamus or otherwise, against a consolidated city or incorporated town to enforce the obligations created by either municipal corporation prior to consolidation, no greater part of the revenue of the consolidated city or incorporated town shall be subject to be applied by the court at the instance of the creditor to the payment of the obligations than could have been subjected against the revenues of the particular city or incorporated town creating the obligation prior to consolidation if the particular municipal corporation having so created the obligation had not been annexed.
AR Code § 14-40-1212 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 6 - Annexation Proceedings by Adjoining Landowners|§ 14-40-1212. Rights of annexed territory to benefits of its revenues

 (a) The wards formed out of the territory comprising the former territory of the smaller municipal corporation annexed under the provisions of this subchapter shall always receive betterments and improvements in an amount equal to the amount of revenue derived by the consolidated municipality from the territory and inhabitants of the smaller municipal corporation, after having deducted the pro rata share of the territory of the running expenses necessary to be expended in maintaining the government of the entire city or incorporated town and after having taken into consideration the amount of revenues necessarily appropriated to pay the indebtedness due by the smaller municipality before consolidation, until the indebtedness is paid. In addition, those wards shall always receive their fair and equitable proportion of the police, board of health, fire protection, and lighting service of the larger city or incorporated town. They shall in all other ways receive fair and liberal treatment and their fair proportion of the expenditure of moneys made by the larger city or incorporated town.  (b) Council members representing the wards composing the territory of the smaller municipal corporation before consolidation have a right:  (1) At all times, to demand of the city or town council the benefit of the revenue collected from the wards, as provided for in this section; and  (2) On the refusal by the city or town council of the demand made under subdivision (b)(1) of this section, to enforce the revenue rights by mandamus or other appropriate proceedings.    (c) In the event the council members, or fifty (50) qualified electors of the territory annexed, feel aggrieved in reference to the amount of revenue expended on the territory or as to the other rights guaranteed in this section to the annexed municipality, they may submit the matter to the circuit court, which is authorized by appropriate orders to compel the consolidated city or incorporated town to give the former territory of the smaller municipal corporation the full benefit of its revenue as provided in this section.
AR Code § 14-40-1213 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 6 - Annexation Proceedings by Adjoining Landowners|§ 14-40-1213. Franchises, contracts, and other obligations

 No franchises, contracts, or other obligations of an extraordinary nature, or other than those necessary for the ordinary and usual running of the affairs of either municipal corporation, which have been granted, made, or created by either municipal corporation after the passage of an ordinance favoring annexation, and prior to the consummation of the annexation, shall be valid and binding against the consolidated municipality, or any part thereof, in the event that a consolidation is effected within sixty (60) days after passage of the ordinance, unless they shall be afterward ratified by the consolidated city or incorporated town.
AR Code § 14-40-1801 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 6 - Annexation Proceedings by Adjoining Landowners|§ 14-40-1801. Proceedings generally

 (a) Whenever any municipal corporation shall desire to throw any portion of the territory lying within its corporate limits outside of the limits and remit it back to the county in which the municipal corporation is situated, it shall be lawful for the council of the municipal corporation to submit the question to the qualified electors of the municipal corporation at an election to be held for that purpose. The election shall be held after giving notice of such election four (4) weeks by advertisement in one (1) of the papers published in the municipal corporation or, if there is no paper published in the municipal corporation by advertisement posted in two (2) of the most public places in the municipal corporation.  (b) If a majority of the votes cast on that question shall be in favor of throwing the territory outside of its municipal corporate limits, the municipal corporation shall present to the county court a petition praying for such change in its territorial limits, and the hearing shall be had on the petition as is prescribed in § 14-38-103.  (c) Alternatively, upon petition of the landowners affected and provided the territory is unimproved and uninhabited wetlands, the city council may resolve to request the county court to exclude the territory from the limits of the municipal corporation and remit it back to the county and a hearing shall be had on the petition as prescribed in § 14-38-103.
AR Code § 14-40-1802 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 6 - Annexation Proceedings by Adjoining Landowners|§ 14-40-1802. Order for exclusion

 (a) After hearing the petition, if the county court shall be satisfied that a majority of the qualified electors of the corporation are in favor of the exclusion of the territory mentioned in the petition from within its limits, or alternatively that the city council has resolved to request that the territory be excluded from the limits of the municipal corporation and remitted back to the county, that the territory to be excluded has been accurately described, and that it would be proper and right to grant the petition, it shall make an order excluding the territory in the petition mentioned from the limits of the municipal corporation and remitting it back to the county.  (b)  (1) It shall be the duty of the clerk of the court to make out a certified copy of the order and to deliver it to the recorder of his or her county, whose duty it shall be to record the order in the proper book of records in his or her office.  (2) It shall also be the duty of the recorder to make out and forward to the Secretary of State a certified copy of the record.
AR Code § 14-40-1803 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 6 - Annexation Proceedings by Adjoining Landowners|§ 14-40-1803. When effective — Limitation

 (a) After the record shall have been filed and a copy forwarded to the Secretary of State, the territory shall cease to be a part of the municipal corporation.  (b) The limits of cities of the first and second class shall not be reduced to an area less than they were on January 1, 1872.
AR Code § 14-40-1901 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 19 - Detachment of Unsuitable Territory|§ 14-40-1901. Designation by resolution

 (a) Whenever it appears that the official corporate limits as shown by the records of the Secretary of State for any city or incorporated town have for more than ten (10) years included an area or territory that has not been recognized by city or incorporated town officials and assessed for taxation as a part of the city or incorporated town during the period, because of error or otherwise, and which has not been legally detached from the city or incorporated town, then the city or incorporated town council may designate and determine by resolution for any portion of the area or territory which it believes is unsuitable for urban development in the foreseeable future, that it is no longer necessary for corporate purposes, and that it desires to officially detach the designated area or territory outside of its corporate limits, retaining the remainder of the unrecognized territory therein.  (b) A certified copy of the resolution shall then be filed with the county court of the county where the city or town is situated or the county where the area or territory affected is situated, together with a petition that a hearing be held by the court to determine whether the designated portions of the area or territory shall be officially excluded from the city or incorporated town limits.
AR Code § 14-40-1902 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 19 - Detachment of Unsuitable Territory|§ 14-40-1902. Hearing and determination

 (a) Upon the filing of the petition, the county court shall set a date for hearing thereon, not less than fifteen (15) days nor more than thirty (30) days after the first publication of notice of the filing of the petition. Notice of the filing shall be published once each week for not less than two (2) weeks in a newspaper having a general circulation in the city or incorporated town.  (b)  (1) After hearing the petition, if the court shall be satisfied that the designated area or territory has not been recognized by city or incorporated town officials and has not been assessed for taxation as a part of the city or incorporated town for more than ten (10) years, that it is no longer suitable for urban development, that the territory to be excluded is accurately described, and that the welfare of the inhabitants and property owners of both the city or incorporated town and of the area or territory affected will be best served, it shall make an order excluding designated area or territory described in the petition or such portions thereof as it determines should be so excluded from the limits of the city or incorporated town and remitting it back to the county.  (2) The clerk of the county shall certify a copy of the order to the recorder of the county, to be recorded by him or her, and shall likewise cause a certified copy to be forwarded to the Secretary of State, to be otherwise filed as provided by law.
AR Code § 14-40-1903 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 19 - Detachment of Unsuitable Territory|§ 14-40-1903. Public utility service

 Any public utility serving the area detached shall have the right to continue to serve in the detached area on the same basis as service had been previously rendered prior to the action of the city or incorporated town council in adopting the resolution detaching the territory, except that no franchise tax shall be payable thereafter to the city or incorporated town.
AR Code § 14-40-2001 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 20 - Municipal Services|§ 14-40-2001. Purpose

 It is the purpose of this subchapter to assist landowners to obtain municipal services by making the services reasonably available. However, nothing in this subchapter shall relieve a landowner from the obligation to pay regular fees and costs for connecting to services or from the obligation to pay the regular cost of the services.
AR Code § 14-40-2003 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 20 - Municipal Services|§ 14-40-2003. No split or island

 (a) In no event shall the provisions of this subchapter allow a municipality to be split in half or to have any of its land separately encircled, thereby creating an island of that city within the boundaries of another city.  (b) Any detachment and annexation occurring that creates a split or island shall be void and all properties returned to their original municipality.
AR Code § 14-40-2004 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 20 - Municipal Services|§ 14-40-2004. Hearing in circuit court — Appeal

 (a)  (1) The circuit courts of the state shall have exclusive jurisdiction to hear all matters related to this subchapter.  (2) The circuit court of the county in which the municipalities are located or, in the event that the municipalities are located in different counties or judicial districts, the circuit court of the county or judicial district that has within the county's or judicial district's boundaries the smallest of the two (2) municipalities in population according to the latest federal decennial census, shall have exclusive jurisdiction to hear all matters related to this subchapter.    (b)  (1)  (A) Upon petition of either affected municipality, the landowner or group of landowners, or its representatives, the circuit judge shall hold a hearing or series of hearings related to the provisions of this subchapter.  (B) The municipalities, the landowner who requested annexation, and a landowner who began owning land after the annexation request are parties to the hearings.    (2) The circuit judge shall make findings as are necessary to determine whether there has been substantial compliance or noncompliance with the requirements of this subchapter.    (c) The petition under subdivision (b)(1) of this section shall be filed no later than twenty (20) days after the adoption or rejection of the ordinance, resolution, or motion bringing the subject property into the annexing jurisdiction.  (d) In the event an action is brought in circuit court by any party, the time period for the requested services to be available as provided in § 14-40-2002(b)(3)(B)(iii) shall be tolled until entry of a ruling by the circuit judge and the conclusion of any appeals from that court.
AR Code § 14-40-2005 (2020)
2020 Arkansas Code|Title 14 - Local Government|Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government|Chapter 40 - Annexation, Consolidation, and Detachment by Municipalities|Subchapter 20 - Municipal Services|§ 14-40-2005. Filing

 (a) All documents produced by landowners, municipalities, or others relating to detachment and annexation as enumerated in this subchapter shall be filed with the circuit clerk with copies served upon the municipality and landowners.  (b)  (1) The circuit clerk shall establish a system of filing for these matters upon action's having been taken by a landowner or group of landowners pursuant to the provisions of this subchapter.  (2) The circuit clerk's file shall be considered the official record of all matters and proceedings under this subchapter.