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The terms appeared in a 1988 ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court, when the high court reversed lower courts’ favorable rulings on the city of Franklin’s effort to annex a portion of Franklin Twp. property.
“In Ohio, courts have frowned upon the use of connecting strips of land to meet the contiguity requirement when annexing outlying territory not otherwise connected to the annexing municipality. Such annexations are usually referred to as "strip, shoestring, subterfuge, corridor, and gerrymander annexations," according to the high court’s decision.
5 things to know about Type II (string) annexations in Ohio
1. It's an expedited process. If all property owners agree to be annexed, then a municipality submits the petition and related documents for review by the county's board of commissioners. As long as requirements are met as set forth by state law, the commissioners are obligated to approve the annexation. In the proposed annexation of Central State University into Xenia, the only property owners involved are those entities, and the university is supportive of the move.
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2. A type II annexation is intended to be more equitable for the political subdivisions involved. Under a type II, townships continue to collect property taxes from the annexed land. In this case, Central State University is a land-grant institution and property taxes are not collected by Xenia Twp.
3. The territory that's being annexed cannot exceed 500 acres under at type II annexation. The city of Xenia is looking to annex 159 acres of Central State University's property in three phases, to be completed in 2019.
4. Townships that oppose an annexation must pass an ordinance or resolution within 25 days after the petition was submitted. The objection must show that the municipality seeking the annexation did not fulfill one or more of the conditions set forth by Ohio law. Commissioners would then have 30 to 45 days to review the petition to determine if all the conditions were met.
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5. The land to be annexed must be at least 5 percent contiguous to the boundary of the municipality seeking the annexation. Xenia city officials say that condition exists where the Ohio to Erie Trail borders Central State University property.
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