The House Local, Intergovernmental, and Regional Affairs Committee will take up (for testimony only) HB 4007.  This bill will exempt charter townships with a population of more than 20,000 from annexation.  The bill can be viewed here.

This bill will effectively lock borders between these charter townships and the cities and/or villages that are on their borders. The intention of the bill is to prevent developers from pitting local units against each other by using annexation. It is a direct response to a situation that happened a few years ago in Northville Township, where a developer attempted to have property moved to the adjacent city and forced an annexation vote.  That vote was defeated by the voters and the property was not moved.

The League opposes this legislation. We have indicated that there are real and signifcant problems in the area of annexation and detachment, and that this is not a real reform. We will testify that we will not support annexation changes without necessary annexation and detachment reforms being included. Anyone who would like to testify on this proposal in Lansing or who would like to provide comments to the committee, please contact Andy Schor at [email protected] or by phone at 517 908-0300.

Andy Schor is the Assistant Director of State Affairs for the Michigan Municipal League. Contact him at (517) 908-0300 or by email at [email protected].