Opinion ID: 1734385
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Mall Property

Text: The primary Code section governing our consideration of Daphne's attempts to annex the mall property is § 11-42-21, Ala. Code 1975. That section provides that property contiguous to a city's existing corporate limits may be annexed into that city if: (1) the owners of the affected property petition the city for annexation; (2) the governing body of the city adopts an ordinance assenting to the annexation; and (3) the property does not already lie within the corporate limits or police jurisdiction of another municipality. Ala.Code 1975, § 11-40-10, defines the limits of police jurisdictions associated with Alabama municipalities: The police jurisdiction in cities having 6,000 or more inhabitants shall cover all adjoining territory within three miles of the corporate limits, and in cities having less than 6,000 inhabitants and in towns, such police jurisdiction shall extend also to the adjoining territory within a mile and a half of the corporate limits of such city or town. If two cities are so situated that their police jurisdictions overlap, and one of them seeks to annex property lying within the overlapping police jurisdictions, § 11-42-21 provides that the city seeking to annex the property may annex it by the procedure of § 11-42-21, up to a boundary which is equidistant from the respective corporate limits of each of such incorporated municipalities which have overlapping police jurisdictions. It is undisputed that the owners of the mall property petitioned Daphne for annexation, as required by § 11-42-21. However, it is also undisputed that the mall property lay within the overlapping police jurisdictions of Daphne and Spanish Fort. Therefore, we must consider whether Daphne's purported annexation of the mall property complied with the contiguity requirement and the equidistant-boundary limitation of § 11-42-21. The Daphne City Council purported to annex the mall property in phases through the adoption of a series of ordinances: Ordinance no. 1998-17 (phase one); no. 1998-18 (phase two); no. 1998-20 (phase three); no. 1998-23 (phase four); and no. 1998-26 (phase five). The council apparently followed this procedure in an effort to comply with § 11-42-22 [4] and City of Prichard v. City of Saraland, 536 So.2d 1386 (Ala.1988). In that case, the City of Saraland had annexed property that was within its police jurisdiction but also was within the police jurisdiction of the City of Prichard. Saraland adopted an initial ordinance annexing property up to an equidistant boundary between the two cities' corporate limits, as permitted by § 11-42-21. When its corporate limits had thus been rearranged, Saraland annexed additional property lying between its new corporate limits and the new equidistant boundary. This Court approved that procedure as fully compliant with §§ 11-42-21 and -22.