Court Opinion

ID: 9515131
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:54:02.76116+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:06:25.266485
License: Public Domain

.SABERS, Justice,
(dissenting).
[¶ 32.] I dissent because the actions of the City and County in this case were unreasonable and illegal.
[¶ 33.] 1. The City and County improperly diluted the value of Es-ling’s property by including the airport property in the valuation.
[¶ 34.] It is fundamentally unfair to sweep up an unwilling landowner in a “voluntary” annexation by the simple expedient of using the value of county-owned property to dilute the value of the unwilling landowner’s property. Esling owns 38% of the total area of the real estate in this annexation. Absent the value assigned to the airport property, Esling’s property constitutes 30.5% of the total value of the property.8 There could not have been a “voluntary” annexation of this land without including the value of the county-owned property because Esling’s refusal to sign the petition would have been fatal to the annexation effort. SDCL 9-4-1 provides in part that the petition for voluntary annexation must be signed by “the owners of not less than three fourths of the value of the territory sought to be annexed!.]” It was unreasonable to include the value of the airport property in determining the value of property in the annexation petition. Public property is generally excluded in determining value for annexation. For example, public streets, alleys, parkways and sidewalks are excluded. See e.g. City and County of Denver v. Holmes, 156 Colo. 586, 400 P.2d 901, 902-3 (1965). The County has the right to petition for annexation, but it should not have the right to do *682so at the expense of surrounding landowners. It is not the County that will be liable for municipal taxation, it is Esling and the value of his property should not be diluted for annexation purposes by the entity which will not bear the burden of annexation.
[¶ 35.] 2. The annexed property was not a natural or reasonable inclusion and therefore is only artificially contiguous.
[¶ 36.] The land annexed to the City is not a natural or reasonable inclusion and therefore is only artificially contiguous. In support of its determination that the annexation was a natural and reasonable inclusion, the majority opinion states “the City found that the annexation was natural and reasonable, since it was compatible with Lawrence County’s comprehensive plan.” This finding by the City is simply untrue. The annexation led to rezoning of the area in direct contravention of the initiated ordinance which prohibited such zoning changes. Furthermore, the annexation excluded the residential subdivision which is adjacent to the airport property and extends in a strip into the annexed property. See Exhibit A attached hereto as Voluntary Annexation Map.
[¶ 37.] This annexation meets none of the criteria cited by the majority opinion from Big Sioux Township to determine whether the annexation is reasonable and natural. 272 N.W.2d 924 (S.D.1978).
[¶ 38.] First, it does not result from orderly growth of the city because orderly growth does not have an unannexed strip in the middle. See exhibit A, Voluntary Annexation Map attached hereto. This Court reversed a similar annexation attempt in City of Rapid City v. Anderson, 2000 SD 77, 612 N.W.2d 289, where the city attempted to annex a narrow strip of land in order to annex the airport property-
[¶ 39.] Second, there is no “outflow of services” to the annexed properties to justify the need for a corresponding inflow of compensation. In fact, by not annexing the subdivision adjacent to the airport, the city received the benefits of annexing the other property without the burden of providing services.
[¶ 40.] Third, there is no expressed need for services for this annexed territory. Finally, if the City was willing and able to provide services and facilities for this annexation, the developed subdivision should have been included in the annexation.
[¶ 41.] Simply stated, the City, County and developer wanted the Propp land to be annexed. With this ultimate goal in mind, they annexed only the property necessary to make the Propp land physically contiguous to the City. This is not a reasonable or natural extension, it is merely a legal ploy to get what the developer, City and County could not get from the voters; rezoning of the land around Exit 17 so that it could be developed in a piecemeal fashion.
[¶ 42.] 3. The County acted unreasonably in ignoring the initiated ordinance.
[¶ 43.] The County’s blatant disregard of the voter’s initiated ordinance was unreasonable. Propp and the city of Spearfish have been battling for years to change the zoning around Exit 17 for the purpose of piecemeal development of this property. The voters of Lawrence County have consistently and legally thwarted those efforts. The last attempt by the voters of the County to make their will known was the initiated ordinance of June 2001 which provided in part:
[w]hereas this Lawrence County Comprehensive Plan has areas that have been designated as A-l agriculture in compliance with the Compre*683hensive Plan and Zoning Ordinances that require A-l agriculture zones be maintained to allow suitable areas of Lawrence County to be retained in agricultural uses,[and] to prevent scattered non-farm, development ... [b]e it ordained that no change of zoning ... be approved or allowed for a period of six years from the date of the adoption of this ordinance.
(emphasis supplied). There is no question that the language in this ordinance is directly aimed at development of the property surrounding Exit 17. Now the City, County and developer have simply found an improper way to get around the will of the voters in this County. We have held that when a County Commission disregards the clear intent of a comprehensive plan it exceeds its authority. See e.g. Save Centennial Valley Association Inc. v. Schultz, 284 N.W.2d 452, 457 (S.D.1979). Given the history of the City and the developer, the County was aware that the City’s first step would be to change the zoning of this area. By signing the voluntary annexation petition, the Commission disregarded the desire of its constituents and exceeded its authority. This behind the scenes end run was overreaching, unreasonable and illegal and should not be sanctioned by this Court.
[¶ 44.] We should order the circuit court to vacate this annexation.
*684[[Image here]]

. The amount and value of the properties involved are:
[[Image here]]
440 Acres No assessed value
Hangar: Appraised Value: $950,000
Real Estate
Frawley Ranches, Inc: 404.77 acres $130,530
Carlstrom: 154.57 acres $ 87,830
Uttke Family LP: 280 acres $185,070
Esling: 797.24 acres $176,640.