Crystal City has filed a lawsuit in Cole County seeking to jettison a portion of a bill that would hinder Jefferson County cities’ ability to annex property.
Crystal City filed the lawsuit on Wednesday, Aug. 26.
On July 13, Gov. Mike Kehoe signed House Bill 2818, which says Jefferson County cities, towns and villages would only be allowed to annex land if 25 percent of the property is contiguous with its border, and cities, towns and villages would only be allowed to annex property once every two years.
The law goes into effect Friday, Aug. 28.
The suit ask Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green to issue a preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order before the law goes into effect and to later issue a permanent injunction.
Jefferson County mayors and other city leaders met shortly after Kehoe signed the bill, and the group said it would challenge the law.
The bill originally only requested to allow the city of St. Joseph to annex a city-owned airport that is not within the city’s limits or contiguous to its borders. It was sponsored by state Rep. Brenda Shields, R-St. Joseph, who represents District 11 in Buchanan County where St. Joseph is located.
The lawsuit says because the annexation restrictions imposed on Jefferson County cities are not related to the original bill, the restrictions are unconstitutional.
“These new restrictions share no mechanism, beneficiary or rationale with the original purpose of HB 2818, being to allow St. Joseph, Missouri, to annex an airport,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also said the restrictions placed on Jefferson County cities are not the same as other municipalities in the state.
The bill says the 25 percent contiguous restriction and two-year waiting period between annexations only applies to cities that are in counties that have a population between 200,000 to 230,000. The lawsuit says Jefferson County is the only county that meets that parameter as the county has a population of 226,739, according to the 2020 U.S. Census data.
The lawsuit said Crystal City “has a legally protectible interest in their ability to annex property into the municipality as well as to be treated equally to all other municipalities of the same class.”
The lawsuit also said Crystal City stands to lose “tax income, future projects and the ability to grow and develop its municipality due to the severe restrictions and limitations implemented by the passage of HB 2818.”
The city also said in the lawsuit that the restrictions “will cause substantial harm to current and future economic development projects in the county. Current projects may be brought to a halt due to the municipalities’ inability to annex land as needed and agreed upon for such projects and future projects could become unavailable as certain entities are unwilling to be exposed to inconsistent regulations by multiple governmental entities.”
Crystal City Mayor Mike Osher previously said the two-year waiting period for annexation would have blocked the James Hardie Industries manufacturing plant that is being built on the former Festus Municipal Airport site in Crystal City.
The facility, off Airport Road, is expected to generate about 230 jobs.
He said as the project developed it was discovered that an additional parcel was needed after the initial annexation. If the two-year waiting period had existed, he said, the deal might have fallen apart.
“In order to bring the factory and hundreds of jobs to Jefferson County, their footprint changed, and we had to annex another section of land in,” Osher said in May. “We would not have been able to do that, and it would have cost us that project.”
The lawsuit said city and county officials told the governor’s chief of staff they were opposed to the restrictions before Kehoe signed House Bill 2818. However, those officials were told the bill would be signed “because the St. Joseph airport annexation was too important and had federal money on the line,” the lawsuit said.
The suit says Crystal City is only seeking to overturn the annexation restrictions placed on Jefferson County cities.
The bill also placed restrictions on cities in St. Charles County, but that restriction only limits annexation by requiring 18 percent of property be contiguous with a city, town or village.
State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, who represents District 22, previously said she worked with state Sen. Nick Schroer, R-O’Fallon, who represent District 2, to add the amendments for Jefferson and St. Charles counties to House Bill 2818.
District 22 takes in roughly the northern half of Jefferson County, and District 2 covers south-central St. Charles County.
Coleman said the Jefferson County annexation rules in the bill reflect Senate Bill 1344, which she filed to create a boundary commission in Jefferson County.
Coleman said she doesn’t believe the annexation restriction would stunt growth in Jefferson County. She said the two-year wait between annexing property would provide time to plan for things such as runoff water, emergency services accessibility and traffic volume would be handled for developing areas.
“I think this is a really sensible pro-growth policy,” she said in May. “I think it is in line with what the master plan calls for which is making sure we are supporting growth in a really thoughtful way that isn’t locking it or stopping it.”