We're Gonna Get Annexed! Just Kidding.
Getting people to believe that the sky is falling has been a common battle cry of the deceitful throughout the ages. They convince people they should be afraid so they can get them to do things they wouldn't normally do. In the story of 'Chicken Little' [1], a young chick who was hit on the head by a falling acorn, created mass hysteria in the barnyard claiming that the sky is falling. The story is over 2500 years old and comes in different flavors, but in many versions, the hysteria drives the entire barnyard flock to its doom with the fox.That's almost exactly what is happening to The Acreage right now when it comes to incorporation. The "Sky" in our case is the imaginary threat of annexation. [2] Most people in The Acreage don't like the idea of a malevolent city forcefully taking over the place. I remember about 20 years ago when they first tried to incorporate The Acreage, they were claiming the same thing. Back then, incorporation failed, but for some reason we never got annexed. At that time, the big bad wolf was The City of West Palm Beach who had recently annexed Ibis. Today, its Palm Beach Gardens who has recently annexed Bay Hill.
In order for a city to annex an unincorporated area like The Acreage, they must have a referendum and a majority of people in the unincorporated area must vote for annexation. That simply isn't likely to happen in The Acreage.
Florida Statutes 171.0413 explain the annexation process very clearly. [3]
"... prior to the ordinance of annexation becoming effective, a referendum on annexation shall be held. ... If there is any majority vote against annexation [from either the annexing city or the area being annexed]... the area proposed to be annexed shall not be the subject of an annexation ..."
Another reason is that we aren't cheap. A city that takes over through annexation will have to provide us with police and fire services. That's usually millions of dollars every year and the taxes collected out here aren't likely to cover it. Royal Palm Beach has been approached by people in The Acreage who wanted to be voluntarily annexed - and Royal Palm Beach turned them down. If a city did annex us, it means they would have about 40,000 potential councilmen on their municipal board diverting tax dollars to The Acreage, and they don't want that.
What about Rustic Lakes? Weren't they annexed against their will? [4] Actually, yes they were, but it was because of a unique set of circumstances that don't exist in The Acreage.
What happened is that years ago, the residents of Ibis voluntarily annexed into The City of West Palm Beach. Ibis borders Rustic Lakes on the East side. Then years later, Palm Beach Gardens expanded westward through voluntary annexation and eventually bordered Rustic Lakes on their North side. Bay Hill borders Rustic Lakes on its West and South sides.
When Bay Hill wanted to become part of Palm Beach Gardens, they were forced by state law to include Rustic Lakes. State law prohibits unincorporated enclaves. An enclave in this context is unincorporated land that is bordered on all sides by a city. That's what would have happened if Palm Beach Gardens hadn't included Rustic Lakes.
When they had the referendum, the small population on only 67 lots of Rustic Lakes [5] was simply out voted by Bay Hill's population which is about 50 times larger. This was quite tragic, but like I said, The Acreage is not in danger of this happening due to its geography.
But is being annexed all that bad?
Personally, I have to say I don't like the idea of being annexed. From my point of view, wanting to get annexed is kind of like wanting to get cancer. But lets take a look at the numbers and see if annexation makes any sense from a financial point of view - assuming we could find a city willing to annex us.
The total millage rate is what determines how much you pay in property taxes. The higher the millage, the more you pay. If The Acreage is incorporated, we will pay an additional 3 to 4 millage points of property tax. [6] If we were to annex into Palm Beach Gardens, we would only pay about 2 millage points over what we are paying as an unincorporated area. So its actually cheaper if we were to get annexed. So even though the thought of getting annexed by a city that is not used to dealing with agricultural properties makes my stomach turn, it actually does make more financial sense than making our own city.
Making The Acreage into a city is being sold as a vaccine that will prevent annexation. In this case, the vaccine is worse than the disease. New residents with an assessed home value of $500K will pay $2000 extra in property tax if we become a city and have to pay 4 millage points. Some of us have better things to spend that much money on.
Your Neighbor,
Dennis Hawkins.
References
1. Wikipedia Contributors (2019). Henny Penny. [online] Wikipedia. Available at: <url>.
2. Sky is falling. (n.d.) Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. (2015). Retrieved January 18 2023 from <url>
3. www.flsenate.gov
4. Peters, S. (n.d.). Rural Rustic Lakes, just annexed, sues to get out of Gardens. [online] The Palm Beach Post. Available at: <url>
5. www.rusticlakespoa.com. (n.d.). Rustic Lakes Community. [online] Available at: <url> [Accessed 19 Jan. 2023].
6. VILLAGE OF LOXAHATCHEE Municipal Feasibility Study. (2021). Clifford McCue and Consultants.