Kansas committee hears SB 124 to limit unilateral city annexations; amendments in the works

A Kansas Senate Local Government Committee opened a hearing on Senate Bill 124, a measure the sponsor said would tighten rules on city annexations by expanding owner-consent requirements, banning so-called narrow-corridor annexations and creating new grounds for landowners to sue to challenge annexations.

Jason, a legislative staff member who briefed the committee, summarized the bill’s primary changes: expand the current owner-consent protection (previously limited to agricultural tracts of 21 or more acres) to all agricultural land and to any tract under 20 acres; strictly prohibit annexing narrow corridors intended to reach noncontiguous parcels; amend KSA 12-5-38 to add corridor annexations as a cause of action; and add a subsection to KSA 15,520 stating that land owned by other governmental entities would not count as contiguous for annexation purposes. “This would all go into effect on July 1 if enacted,” Jason said.

Sponsor State Sen. Doug Shane (proponent) told the committee he and…