City Administration Advances Annexation Litigation

On Wednesday, September 13, the City acted to advance its annexation of west-side Areas 1A and 1B by moving to dismiss its constitutional claims related to those areas in a separate lawsuit the City filed in March 2022: https://bton.in/FDQUW. 

 On Tuesday, September 5, Special Judge Nathan Nikirk issued a stay in County Residents Against Annexation v. the City of Bloomington, a lawsuit filed by some remonstrators from Areas 1A and 1B seeking to challenge annexation of those west-side neighborhoods. Judge Nikirk has stayed the remonstrators’ case pending the resolution of the City’s claims involving Areas 1A and 1B in the separate lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the state’s 2019 law affecting sewer waivers.

By dismissing the constitutional claims related to the west-side areas, the City is indicating its readiness to proceed to the trial on the merits of those annexations. In its motion for voluntary dismissal of those claims, the City stated that it was doing so “[i]n order to proceed expeditiously with the remonstrance case before Judge Nikrik,” and that it was doing so “in accordance with Judge Nikirk’s directive.”

The City plans to continue to pursue the constitutional claims as to the other annexation efforts – Areas 1C, 2, 3, 4 and 5 – but in light of the potential years-long constitutional litigation involved, has dropped those claims as to the west-side areas 1A and 1B in order to facilitate a more timely resolution of that annexation.

“Uncertainty and delayed annexation is disruptive to all concerned. We have long sought a timely annexation to right-size our city, consistent with state law and despite repeated illegal interventions from the state government.” Mayor John Hamilton stated. “Now is the time to get this major component resolved. We are confident in the propriety and value of the annexation and want to move forward so that Bloomington can continue to thrive and grow.”