County Residents Against Annexation (CRAA) will remain as a plaintiff in the litigation pending in the courts on the merits of Bloomington’s effort to annex two geographic areas into the city.
This past week’s big annexation news was the cancellation of Thursday’s hearing on a cross motion for summary judgment in a constitutional challenge that was filed by Bloomington two years ago.
This table, from a recent court filing by the city of Bloomington, sums up the impact of the disputed 2019 law. The left column shows the outcome if the 2019 law is valid and is applied to remonstration signatures: Annexation is stopped outright in five areas (red) and is subject to judicial review in two areas (blue). The right column shows the outcome if the 2019 is unconstitutional: Annexation can proceed forward with no additional steps in five areas (green) and is subject to judicial review in two areas (blue).
But that hearing will be rescheduled. The hearing was canceled, only because the special judge in the case, Kelsey Hanlon out of Owen County, recused herself, due to a potential conflict involving her husband’s recent transfer of employment to Monroe County’s legal department.
At the start of the year, the nonprofit organization County Residents Against Annexation (CRAA) had expressed some hope that Bloomington would withdraw its lawsuit.
The constitutional question concerns a 2019 law, enacted by the state legislature, which voided many of the annexation waivers that Bloomington was relying on for a successful annexation effort. The waivers were supposed to ensure that landowners with such waivers attached to their property would not have their signatures counted for any remonstration against annexation.
CRAA president Margaret Clements is quoted in a Jan. 2 news release saying, “Just as the City of Bloomington unilaterally and involuntarily attempted to annex property in the county, only the City of Bloomington can unilaterally end the dispute.”
But it is now clear that new Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson’s administration will be looking to proceed with the litigation of all of the pending annexation cases.
Last year’s lead art for The B Square’s look ahead to 2021 featured this caption: “These numerals began life as a photograph of the sidewalk around the courthouse square in downtown Bloomington, where the crows like to crap. It was that kind of year.”
Arguably a worse year was 2021. So this year’s art includes an actual crow and a built-in sense of foreboding. Is that kid going to land his jump over the crow to get to next year?
