SW Clay vs. Carmel Supreme Court Ruling Out—Doesn’t Help, Doesn’t Hurt

As many of you have heard the State Supreme Court issued its ruling on Wednesday, June 27th regarding the SW Clay vs. City of Carmel appeal.

What is very important here is that this ruling in no way harms our case against the Town of Fishers! Nor does it help the Town in its pursuit of usurping our property.

The Fishers Town Council held off on its pursuit of forcibly annexing the Geist Area pending this ruling because no one really knew what the court might do. For example, the court might have addressed points in annexation law that would make it much more difficult for a city or town to annex territory. If the court had done so—which it did not—then Fishers and other municipalities might have had to change their tactics.

In fact the good news is that since the Town had to wait, we’ve enjoyed another year (plus) of not paying higher taxes to Fishers and are even more prepared to fight this forced annexation attempt than ever before.

Despite all of the hoopla bandied about in the press, the ruling really came down to two elements: (1) a municipality has the right to modify the fiscal plan after the annexation ordinance is adopted; (2) SW Clay did not meet the test of having 65% of the property owners of record remonstrate against the annexation.

Because of this second point, the court ruled in favor of Carmel.

The court did not rule on other points of annexation law nor did a “roadmap” of how to proceed really come out of the ruling.

As you may recall, when Carmel first attempted to annex SW Clay a remonstrance group called No Ordinance for Annexation (or NOAX) was formed. After NOAX secured the needed number of remonstrators (65% of the property owners) to fight the annexation, it then negotiated a settlement deal with Carmel and, for certain concessions like tax abatements, it agreed not to pursue the fight against forced annexation. Part of the result of these negotiations was that Carmel revised its fiscal plan to provide services to the area to be annexed and adopted an amended annexation ordinance.

However, others in SW Clay said that NOAX did not represent their interests and continued on with the fight. One of their arguments was that the law did not allow a municipality to change its fiscal plan and, as such, the NOAX deal essentially didn’t count. The court ruled otherwise saying that both the property owners and municipality have the right to negotiate a settlement, if they want to, and amend the fiscal plan accordingly after the annexation ordinance had already been adopted.

Based on the evidence presented, the court ruled that the NOAX deal was valid, and because of that, those property owners who had initially remonstrated against the annexation but then subsequently agreed with the NOAX settlement could no longer be counted as valid remonstrators; thus, SW Clay no longer had the required 65%. Without the required 65% there is no valid remonstrance under the law and Carmel wins.

If there is a roadmap in that for municipalities to follow for annexations, good luck in finding it. That said, now that the wait is over, no doubt Fishers will re-start its efforts and political spin game to annex the Geist Area. We’re ready!

We will easily get more than 65% of Geist Area property owners to sign a remonstrance petition and we are already organized to get those signatures; we have a solid legal fund in place and will collect even more to fight the good fight; and, there is no one empowered or willing to negotiate a settlement—Fishers will have to try to settle with each and every homeowner individually if they want to try to cut a deal.

More importantly, we have a strong basis in law to fight the forced annexation—a basis that was not touched by this ruling. WE ARE GOOD TO GO!

How much did your property taxes go up?

Due to the recent reassessment, the average property tax increase across the state is around 24%. Some in the Geist Area have experienced a 28% increase, while others have been a bit more fortunate.

Keep in mind that if the Town of Fishers prevails, our taxes will go up another 22% on top of what we just got smacked with!

The Power of Pooh!

The Town of Fishers is using its monopoly power over waste water treatment in southeastern Hamilton County to persuade certain neighborhoods in the Geist Area to agree to be annexed. The neighborhoods of Country Lane Estates, Forest Knoll, and Carefree Estates are at various stages of negotiation to be converted from well and septic service to sewer and city water service.

The Town has offered interest-free financing of the construction in exchange for the neighborhoods agreement to be annexed. These agreements were on the agenda of the Fishers Town Council this past Monday, June 18. The agreements for Country Lane and Forest Knoll were approved; the agreement for Carefree Estates was removed from the agenda. It’s not clear what the Council approval signifies. There was no discussion by the Council and no one in the audience asked to speak.

In the case of all three neighborhoods, the residents are waiting to see detailed cost estimates from the Town before they make a commitment.

Pricy Fire Protection

As you know, Fall Creek Township contracts with the Fishers Fire Department to provide fire and EMS services to the unincorporated areas of the Township (mostly the Geist Area), with the exception of a small section that is supported by Fortville.

And, as you may recall, last November the Township sold the Brooks School Road fire station to the Town of Fishers because the Township didn’t have the money to pay for the entire 2006 fire contract. Fishers paid $916,000 for the building of which $213,000 was applied against the then $1.8 million contract and the remainder was retained by the Township.

Part of the story according to the Township board was that they were trying to hold down taxes and basically ran out of money. Although the $703,000 gain was helpful, there is still some risk that Township taxes may go up. They also said that part of the problem was that new homes were going up faster than property-tax revenues to pay for the fire protection contract.

Here’s the rub, though: The Township has never entertained a competitive bid for fire and EMS services for the unincorporated areas of Fall Creek Township; they simply assume Fishers is giving them a good deal. But, Lawrence Township Fire Department is very interested in bidding to provide these services.

How do we know they are interested? Because, unlike our Township Trustee, we asked. And, from our initial discussions, Lawrence likely can provide the services for less money than Fishers.

Here’s another rub: Lawrence did say they would need a fire station located in the North/East section of the area (think around Olio and 104th) to ensure proper protection to that area. Of course, the Brooks School Road fire station would have worked, but the Township gave that away. But, the Township could float a bond and build a building with little to no impact on our taxes, especially if Lawrence’s services are less costly.

If you think that the Township should undertake a competitive bidding process, instead of simply giving the deal to Fishers—the current contract expires 12/31/07 and also can be terminated upon 60 days notice—contact your Township officials:

Terry Michael, Trustee
Jason Meyer, Board
Mike Reuter, Board
Dan Rieke, Board
317-841-3180

Remember, all of these folks are elected to office.

By the way: (1) The Township should allow Fishers Fire Department take care of the unincorporated areas (Swiss Cheese “holes”) that are well within the Town boundaries, of which there are many—why should we pay for fire protection for areas that Fishers doesn’t want to annex because there is no economic gain in doing so?; (2) Lawrence FD also has boats on Geist, so the lake would continue to be covered.

Incorporating Our Own Town—Update

The subgroup of GUO is continuing to investigate the feasibility of forming our own town. We have secured an agreement in principle with a nearby fire department to provide fire and EMS protection, and are working through the cost and tax implications of setting up and running a town.

By forming our own town we can permanently thwart future annexation attempts—even if Fishers loses this round, they are free to try again in four years.

We will provide a more complete update in the near future as we work through the numbers. Meanwhile, please share your thoughts below by posting a comment.