The effect of state and municipal statutes on the annexation process with a focus on annexation activities in Delaware
Date
2015
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Annexation has become a common method that American municipalities have used to control growth, deal with changing economic and demographic characteristics, and provide services to their residents. Because of the frequency of annexation experienced in the United States, a large amount of land has changed political hands, which has significant implications as to how the land is being used. Many scholars have studied the motivations for annexation, how the annexation process is carried out, and the consequences of annexation for state and local governments as well as property owners. This study examined how state and municipal statutes in the United States affect the rate at which annexations are carried out and how much land is incorporated in those acts. First, a Wilcoxon Rank Sums test was carried out on annexation data at the national level to determine if state statutes had an effect on annexation activity from 2001 to 2010. Second, a Wilcoxon Rank Sums test was carried out on annexation at the state level to determine if municipal statutes had an effect on annexation activity in Delaware from 1981 - 2010. Finally, a combination of document-based research and in-person interviews were carried out in order to understand the local factors that contributed to the passage of an annexation act in Georgetown, Delaware in 1989. The results of this study indicate that statutes that give discretionary power in the process to property owners or developers have the greatest effect on annexation rates. In addition, the results demonstrate that public engagement is an important factor in the annexation process at multiple geographic scales. This thesis contributes to the study of annexation in the United States in three key ways. First, it adds to the research on the political factors that could influence annexation rates at the state level across the United States by applying more recent annexation data to previously used methods. Second, this study provides a preliminary look at annexation activity among municipalities in the state of Delaware, a state in which there are no academic studies. Finally, because of the dearth of studies examining annexation at the individual municipal level, this study provides an example for further research into how local laws and politics affects annexation.