Bill Description: Senate Bill 1264 would repeal and replace the section of Idaho code dealing with cities and their power to annex. 

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Does it violate the spirit or the letter of either the U.S. Constitution or the Idaho Constitution? Examples include restrictions on speech, public assembly, the press, privacy, private property, or firearms. Conversely, does it restore or uphold the protections guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution or the Idaho Constitution?

Senate Bill 1264 would repeal and replace Section 50-222, Idaho Code, dealing with annexation by cities.

While most of the changes made by this process are designed to reorganize and clarify the statute, there are a few substantive changes. The most notable improvement is found in subsection (3)(f), which requires that a city seeking to annex property must have the "voluntary consent" of "landowners representing two-thirds (2/3) of the parcels and at least fifty percent (50%) of the area proposed for annexation."

Under the current code, consent is only required from "landowners owning more than fifty percent (50%) of the area" proposed for annexation. This change increases the threshold for consent and ensures that one large landowner cannot overrule the wishes of the majority of property owners in the proposed annexation area. 

Another improvement made by the bill is lowering the size of "residential enclaved lands" (residential parcels surrounded on all sides by lands within a city) that may be annexed without consent to "thirty (30) or fewer privately owned parcels." Current law allows this unwanted annexation of enclaves to include up to 99 parcels. 

Property rights are the foundation of our republic, and it would be preferable to prohibit the annexation of any property without the owner's express consent, but this bill does make positive changes that protect property rights better than does current code.

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