Brighton City Manager Dana Foster and the League’s Andy Schor testify against an annexation bill March 8, 2012, in Lansing.

LANSING, Michigan – The House Local Government Committee today (March 8, 2012) took up HB 4007 for testimony. This bill would prevent annexations between cities and charter townships of 20,000 or more in population.

Michigan Municipal League staff, joined by Brighton City Manager Dana Foster, testified in opposition. We testified that this will lock borders and not allow for collaboration, so is anti-regionalism. Additionally, businesses who want services provided by the city will not be able to utilize those services, so this will cost jobs.  This bill was introduved for one particular situation, which was adequately resolved through a vote of the people (with the annexation not being approved). We testified that there needs to be a complete reform of annexation laws which must include detachment reform, and that this bill does not address all of the necessary issues. The Michigan Association of Home Builders and the Michigan Realtors Association also opposed the bill.

The Michigan Townships Association and several charter townships testified in support of the bill. They said that charter townships are basically cities and should have this protection, said that developers should not be able to look to the city next door if the charter township’s policies are problematic to the developer, and a variety of other things. They also claimed that this will allow for regionalism and collaboration.
The bill did not receive a vote, and the Chair (Rep. Ouimet) indicated that the sponsor of the bill (Rep. Heise) will work with interested parties to try to come to a solution.

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].