Opinion ID: 1369329
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The restricted franchise imposed by sections 35228 and 35231 is necessary to serve a compelling state interest.

Text: Our inquiry into the state interests underlying the restrictive franchise in annexation elections differs from the inquiry we undertook in Fullerton. In that case, the issue before us concerned the discretionary decision of the State Board of Education to limit the franchise to residents of the seceding portion of the school district; we therefore inquired specifically whether denying the vote to the residents of the remaining portion of this school district was necessary to serve a compelling state interest. In the present case, the controlling statutes, sections 35228 and 35231, grant no discretionary authority to LAFCO, but establish a formula to determine when residents of the affected city may vote on an annexation proposal. Our inquiry is therefore a general one, not limited to this particular annexation proposal: whether the statutory restrictions on the franchise in annexation elections are necessary to serve a compelling state interest. (2) LAFCO, supported by the City of Los Angeles as amicus curiae, advances three state interests served by limiting the vote to residents of the affected territory: (1) avoiding the cost and administrative burden of extending the vote to residents of the affected city; (2) avoiding the danger that the votes of the persons most concerned with the annexation issue, the residents of the affected territory, will be overwhelmed by a much larger number of votes from the less interested city residents; (3) avoiding the risk that unincorporated areas might be unable to obtain the benefits of municipal government and services if annexation was unattractive to residents of neighboring cities. We review each of the asserted interests, explaining that each may qualify as a compelling interest under the constitutional test. However, the validity of the statutory scheme  because it denies any voice to city residents either directly or through their elected officials  must rest on the last asserted interest, the only one which could justify compelling cities to annex adjoining territory even if the city's residents oppose annexation. We first consider together the asserted state interest in avoiding the cost and burden of an election encompassing the affected city and its asserted interest in limiting the vote to persons with a substantial interest in the annexation. An example suggested by amicus the City of Los Angeles will illustrate both assertions. Suppose LAFCO had recommended annexation of Eastview not to Rancho Palos Verdes, but to the City of Los Angeles. Such an annexation would have no discernible impact upon most of the 3 million residents of Los Angeles, but a substantial impact upon the 9,055 residents of Eastview. To require a city-wide election in Los Angeles to approve the annexation would impose a cost and administrative burden far exceeding that entailed by an election limited to Eastview, and in such an election the votes of Eastview would be lost amid the million or more votes of city residents who have little or nothing at stake. We recognize that the state's interest in limiting expenditures and administrative burdens is generally not of compelling character (see Gould v. Grubb (1975) 14 Cal.3d 661, 675 [122 Cal. Rptr. 377, 536 P.2d 1337] and cases there cited); commentators have questioned whether such an interest alone can ever justify limiting the franchise in an annexation election (see Note, op. cit. supra, 88 Harv.L.Rev. 1571, 1581; Note, op. cit. supra, 20 UCLA L.Rev. 1093, 1119-1120). Courts, however, have looked more favorably on the argument that the state may have a compelling reason to limit the franchise to voters specially interested in the matter at issue. In Lockport v. Citizens for Community Action (1977) 430 U.S. 259 [51 L.Ed.2d 313, 97 S.Ct. 1047], the court noted that in a single shot or referendum election, the state may more easily justify limiting the franchise because the single proposal makes it far easier to determine whether its adoption or rejection will have a disproportionate impact on an identifiable group of voters. (P. 266 [51 L.Ed.2d, p. 321].) Our opinion in Fullerton observed that although it is clear that the state cannot claim a compelling interest in excluding voters because of how they may vote.... [i]f we rephrase the justification ... as one of excluding uninterested voters in order to protect the interests of persons vitally concerned, we encounter a state interest which might, in an appropriate case, achieve compelling character. ( Ante, pp. 779, 805.) The example cited earlier demonstrates convincingly that in some cases a city-wide election to approve an annexation is absurd, imposing an inordinate burden and expense, and having the effect of nullifying the votes of those persons affected by the issue under a mass of ballots from persons uninterested in the issue. Thus in some cases  specifically, cases involving the annexation of a territory with relatively few residents to a much larger municipality  the statutory limitation on voting may serve a compelling state interest. As plaintiffs point out, however, in other cases, when the population of the affected territory and the annexing city are more nearly equal, the state cannot claim an equally compelling interest in limiting the franchise; annexation in such cases may have a significant effect on city residents as well as upon residents of the affected territory. Thus, the constitutional problem becomes a matter of distinguishing those cases in which a franchise limited to residents of the affected territory is justified from those in which it is not. The Legislature has recognized that distinction, and provided in section 35231 that, once the requisite number of protests have been filed to require an election, [5] the conducting authority shall also call an election in the affected city and submit to the registered voters residing therein [the question of annexation] ... if: [¶] (a) The total assessed value of land within the affected territory equals one-half or more of the total assessed value of land within the affected city... or [¶] (b) The number of registered voters residing within the affected territory equals one-half or more of the number of registered voters residing within the affected city.... The Legislature has thus undertaken to measure the relative interests of residents of the affected territory and the city, and the expense and burden of an election encompassing both groups. It has concluded that if the assessed value of land in the affected territory does not equal 50 percent or more of the city's assessed value, and the number of registered voters is not equal to 50 percent of the city's list, the impact of annexation on the city's treasury or voting rolls is insufficient to require an election in the city. We find no basis to question the line drawn by the Legislature. To be sure, any quantitative measure is in a sense arbitrary; we cannot say that a compelling interest required drawing a line at the case in which the territory has voters equal to 50 percent of the city's number instead of 40 percent or 25 percent. But once we find that the Legislature has a compelling interest in drawing a distinction between annexations in which the city residents should vote, and those in which they should not, we cannot deny it the right to act merely because linedrawing is necessarily imprecise. In this respect, the present case resembles Weber v. City Council (1973) 9 Cal.3d 950 [109 Cal. Rptr. 553, 513 P.2d 601], which involved a statute that permitted a city to annex uninhabited territory without an election, and which defined uninhabited territory as territory with less than 12 registered voters. Reasoning that the state could legitimately avoid annexation elections in sparsely inhabited territory (see 9 Cal.3d at pp. 964-965), we upheld the statute without concern for the arguably arbitrary selection of 12 registered voters as the crucial number. We conclude that the state can show a compelling interest in limiting the vote to residents of the affected territory when the number of voters in that territory is substantially less than the number in the affected city. We conclude also that the standard established in section 35231 provides an acceptable line to distinguish those cases in which an election should be so limited. Proof of such a compelling interest, however, may not be sufficient in itself to sustain the statutory classification. As the Supreme Court stated in Dunn v. Blumstein (1972) 405 U.S. 330, 343 [31 L.Ed.2d 274, 285, 92 S.Ct. 995]: It is not sufficient for the State to show that [the statutory] requirements further a very substantial state interest. In pursuing that important interest, the State cannot choose means that unnecessarily burden or restrict constitutionally protected activity. Before enactment of the 1977 Act, the California statutes required concurrent approval of an annexation by residents of the affected territory in a special election called for that purpose and by the legislative body of the annexing city. (See former § 35122.) Although city residents did not vote in the special election, they were not wholly denied the right to vote with regard to the annexation issue since any annexation had to be approved by their elected representatives. [6] Thus, under the former statutory scheme, the asserted state interests in avoiding the cost and burden of a city-wide election and the effect of aggregating territorial and city votes were achieved in a manner less restrictive of the political rights of city residents. Consequently, to sustain the provisions of the 1977 Act, the state must show a compelling interest in denying cities' residents a right to vote on annexation either directly or through their elected representatives. We therefore turn to the third interest advanced in defense of the franchise restrictions. LAFCO asserts that the state has a compelling interest in permitting unincorporated territories to elect to join adjacent cities, obtaining the benefits of municipal government and services, even if the city's residents oppose annexation. The history and structure of the California statutes relating to annexation support the asserted state interest. Prior to the establishment of local agency formation commissions in 1963, annexation controversies took on the appearance of a kind of warfare in which the unincorporated suburbs of the state have been both the prize and battleground, the annexation process a tactic, the location of annexation boundaries a significant weapon, and their calculated manipulation a commonplace event. ( Tillie Lewis Foods, Inc. v. City of Pittsburg (1975) 52 Cal. App.3d 983, 995 [124 Cal. Rptr. 698].) Then, [a]fter years of failure to cope with these problems to any meaningful extent ..., the Legislature finally acknowledged `the need for a supra-local agency to intervene in boundary decisions' affecting local governments and, in 1963, established a LAFCO in each county to serve this purpose. ( Ibid. ) The Knox-Nisbet Act of 1965 charged the commissions with the duty of encouraging the orderly formation and development of local governmental agencies based upon local conditions and circumstances (§ 54774); it then granted the commissions broad authority to approve, modify, or disapprove annexation proposals in accord with specified standards (§§ 54790, 54796; see Bozung v. Local Agency Formation Com. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 263, 274 [118 Cal. Rptr. 249, 529 P.2d 1017]; Tillie Lewis Foods, Inc. v. City of Pittsburg, supra, 52 Cal. App.3d 983, 1002). Neither the 1963 legislation creating the commissions nor the 1965 legislation extending their authority repealed the Annexation Act of 1913 (Stats. 1913, ch. 312), which remained the principal substantive authority under which inhabited territory could be annexed. The tension between that earlier act, which vested primary power in the residents and property owners of the affected territory and the government of the annexing city, and the later acts granting discretion to the commissions, continued until the enactment of the 1977 Act. The preface to the 1977 law which led to its enactment reiterates the state's interest in encouraging orderly growth and development and in favor of logical determination of city boundaries (§ 35000). It then explicitly finds that urban population densities ... necessitate a broad spectrum and high level of community services and controls, which can be best provided by a single governmental agency, rather than several limited purpose agencies. ( Id. ) The Act thus states a legislative goal of providing a full range of municipal services to developing areas beyond present city boundaries and, by implication, the belief of the Legislature that such services can be provided more efficiently by municipal government, through annexation, than by the special districts and agencies which more commonly serve unincorporated lands. The 1977 Act then repeals the 1913 act and comprehensively revises the statutory procedures governing incorporation, civic reorganization, annexation, and detachment of territory. It confirms the authority of the commissions to control annexation (see § 35150), and the right of residents of inhabited territories to self-determination (see § 35228), but eliminates the power of city governments to reject an annexation. Thus, under the 1977 Act, if the residents of an affected area desire to join a neighboring city, and that proposal accords with the pattern of orderly community development as envisioned by the commission, the city and its voters no longer have the power to defeat annexation. The foregoing history indicates that the Legislature had determined that the goals of promoting orderly and logical community development, and of providing municipal services to newly urbanized regions, cannot adequately be met if city governments and their voters have a veto power over annexations approved by local agency formation commissions. The inconsistency between the legislative objectives and a municipal veto is especially acute in a case, such as the present Eastview annexation, in which the unincorporated territory contains primarily less expensive housing units and, lacking substantial commercial or industrial development, does not possess the tax base needed to incorporate as a new municipality. In such a case, the commission may conclude that the logical step in orderly community development would be to permit the area to join a neighboring city. From the viewpoint of city residents, however, such annexation is an unattractive prospect since the cost of providing services to the affected area might exceed the tax revenues it would produce. Thus, if city voters or their elected representatives have the final decision on annexation, the result might be to leave orphan islands of unincorporated territory rejected by all neighboring cities but lacking the financial resources for self-incorporation. We conclude that the state's interest in carrying out a policy of planned, orderly community development under the guidance of the local agency formation commissions, and in particular its interest in avoiding the creation or perpetuation of islands of unwanted, unincorporated territories, is of compelling importance. That interest cannot be achieved if residents of the affected city or their elected representatives have the power to reject an annexation endorsed by the commission and approved by the residents of the affected territory. Thus, the restrictions upon the franchise imposed by the 1977 Act are necessary to the accomplishment of this compelling objective. We therefore hold that the restrictions imposed by sections 35228 and 35231 survive the strict scrutiny applicable to provisions which limit fundamental rights, and do not abridge rights guaranteed under the state or federal Constitutions. The order is reversed, and the matter remanded to the superior court with directions to enter an order denying the request for a preliminary injunction.