Annexation

On April 27th, the City of Altoona, WI began the official process of annexing roughly 122 acres of Town of Washington land (Agenda, Video, Minutes). One of the landowners stated that they were not happy with Altoona’s actions. The landowner stated that they felt pressured to annex the land to Altoona otherwise Altoona was never going to allow them to develop their land. The landowner had wanted to sell the land to a developer whose plan was building single-family homes on 1-acre lots, similar to the surrounding neighborhood.

It seems that Altoona has abused Wisconsin § 62.23(7a)) to give the landowners an ultimatum: annex your land into Altoona or Altoona will never allow it to be developed.

In Hoepker v. City of Madison Plan Commission 209 Wis. 2d 633, 563 N.W.2d 145 (1997), the Wisconsin Supreme Court concluded (id 647):

Municipalities cannot coerce or unfairly induce an elector and/or property owner into agreeing to annexation. See Town of Lafayette v. City of Chippewa Falls, 70 Wis. 2d 610, 629, 235 N.W.2d 435 (1975) (annexation cannot be the result of any undue influence or pressure from the annexing municipality); Town of Fond du Lac v. City of Fond du Lac, 22 Wis. 2d 533, 539-40, 126 N.W.2d 201 (1964) (city cannot use economic pressure to promote annexation).

The same court also concluded (id 648):

the City of Madison is unduly influencing a property owner to sign an annexation petition, contrary to the safeguards provided in ch. 66. Although the City claims that it is not coercing the Hoepkers because they can refuse to sign an annexation petition and therefore not receive approval to develop their land, we do not find this argument persuasive … If the Hoepkers signed an annexation petition because the alternative would be to leave their land undeveloped, their consent would be the product of direct economic pressure from the City … Thus, the City’s action is improper because it denies the Hoepkers their political right to participate in an annexation proceeding by voluntarily deciding whether to support or oppose annexation.

In a twist of irony, Taylor Greenwell (Altoona City Planning Director) states during an Altoona Plan Commission meeting (November 14, 2023) that “private land is left up to the property owner to do as they would” (Video @ 15:50). This video is the Altoona Plan Commission recommending Altoona change their environmental codes (Altoona Title 19.15) to allow the new landowner to clearcut native woodlands to make way for more high-density housing. The proposed environmental code changes will be covered in a future post.

The original landowner should have been afforded the same right: to do whatever they wanted with their land.