Opinion ID: 2606260
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: legislative power to annex

Text: In Mid-County Future Alternatives Committee v. City of Portland, 310 Or. 152, 795 P.2d 541 (1990) (decided this same day), we determined that the legislature had the constitutional authority to validate annexations to municipalities whose charters permitted such annexations. We further determine that Oregon Laws 1987, Chapter 818, section 3, [6] was a valid exercise of this legislative power. As the Eugene Charter permits boundary changes in accordance with state law, [7] the rule of Mid-County effectively disposes of the arguments concerning the parcels bearing agency numbers 863, 864, 865, and 871, because the final Boundary Commission orders for all four of those annexations were adopted within the time period covered by Oregon Laws 1987, Chapter 818, section 3. Thus, the validity and constitutionality of the underlying Boundary Commission orders in those four cases is no longer relevant. Our opinion in Mid-County Future also disposes of petitioner's contention that the legislature did not have the constitutional authority to create a boundary commission with the authority to conduct annexations. If the legislature has the authority to directly make available territory to be annexed to Eugene, but no constitutional provision limits that power to the legislature acting in its legislative capacity, the legislature has the authority to create a state agency such as the Boundary Commission to carry out that function.