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Judge To Rule Soon In Annexation Fight |
By Megan Rutherford
A judge is expected to decide by the end of the month whether Oro Valley legally annexed a nearly square-mile area in May. Pima County Superior Court Judge Carmine Cornelio said Friday that he would try to issue his opinion by Tuesday. Both sides will be able to contest the ruling. The case brought by Philip Richardson, a resident of the area that Oro Valley annexed, has led to two hearings where much of the argument has been based on what the challengers to the annexation call sloppy work on the part of the town.
Attorney Howard Baldwin is contesting more than a hundred signatures the town obtained in support of the annexation, saying they are invalid for various reasons, such as missing dates and signatures. In some cases, a person was presented with the wrong legal description of the area being sought for annexation or someone signed for another person, he said. The two sides even disagree on the deadline for filing signatures.
The town's attorney, Mark Langlitz, has said state law requires the town to substantially comply with annexation rules, not strictly comply with them. "The town's position is that we obtained the required number of signatures," he said Tuesday.
Michel Harmony, a 13-year resident of the target area, compiled much of the information showing what she calls errors made by Oro Valley. She has spent weeks investigating the annexation process because she says she does not want to be part of the town. "I used to live in Oro Valley and I moved out," she said.
Harmony said it felt like someone had punched her in the stomach the day she got the letter from Oro Valley stating her property had been annexed. "If they're going to make me live in Oro Valley, they should have followed the rules," she said.
Hanging in the balance is more than $600,000 in revenues the new area - named Area B by the town - is expected to bring to Oro Valley. Area B is bounded roughly by West Suffolk Drive on the south, North Northern Avenue on the west, the extension of North First Avenue on the east and West Camino Cortaro, West Catalina Shadows Boulevard and West Windy Vista Place on the north. Both sides were to submit a summary of their disagreements and the legal basis for each on Wednesday.
Richardson filed the original petition challenging the annexation on May 6. The first hearing was July 1 and the final hearing was Friday. The annexation was to become effective May 7. Since then, the town has been providing services to the area.
* Contact reporter Megan Rutherford at 434-4073 or meganr@azstarnet.com.
Copyright © 2003 Dan Swango and Associates