By city, I’m talking about legally forming an incorporated city, with a city charter, city hall, local police power, etc.
How easy is it for people who live in an unincorporated area to form their own city? E.g. if a bunch of neighbors want to form a legal Town or City out of their land and be able to levy taxes, get education funds from a higher level of government, give each other crony jobs (“It’s my turn to be Mayor! You’re Chief of Police now, and Joe is School Superintendent”), and otherwise have a good time, how easy is it to accomplish?
Is it just a matter of getting enough registered voters to petition for it, or is it an extreme discretionary matter with the State or Country, in the sense that you can get shot down by the State courts or Legislature because your “City” has no economic value?
This would also include powers like issuing municipal bonds so you can build fancy statues and throw fairs, and fund them through ticketing passersby with your draconian traffic laws.
This question assumes that some physical and economic infrastructure is already in place, such as the land in question being a suburban neighborhood, set of farms, or something like that, not totally undeveloped and unsettled land.
If I understand correctly, in Nevada the state legislature must approve a public vote. Apparently Laughlin, NV is currently working on that procedure. Go to Google News and search for Laughlin, NV if you have a specific interest. There is a story about it every few days.
In New York, an unincorporated area of a Town may petition the state to become a Village, if they have at least 500 residents within the area’s borders and do not overlap any existing Villages or Cities. If the petition is successful then a referendum is held and the Village is incorporated under the uniform Village Law. (A handful of villages which predate the law retain original charters from the state legislature.) Villages remain part of (and subordinate to) the Towns they are in, and share services with the Town.
A place (sometimes an entire Town but usually an existing Village) may petition the state legislature directly to become a City. Cities are independent and not part of the Towns they are in, and each has a unique charter granted by the legislature. There are only 62 cities in New York, as compared with more than 500 villages. There is no size limit for Cities, and some have fewer than the 500-resident minimum for Villages, but most have more. New York City is a special case in that it comprises five counties.
I think that the procedure is laid out in either your state’s Constitution or state statutes.
I know in my state or Colorado, a glorified HOA can create a “metropolitan district” that can take on many of the functions of a city and the board acts qua city council. Since it is still unincorporated, a lot of major approvals go through the county board.
Here’s the publicity on one NC community near where I used to live now going through the process:
Lawmakers to weigh proposal for Castle Hayne incorporation
A state commission Monday evening unanimously recommended that Castle Hayne become New Hanover County’s fifth municipality. Published May 23, 2011 http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20110523/ARTICLES/110529867
Freshman lawmaker Susi Hamilton scores first bill approval
It took nearly three months in office, but state Rep. Susi Hamilton pushed her first bill through a House committee Thursday morning. Published April 21, 2011 http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20110421/ARTICLES/110429926
Titan: Rule changes may lead to legal action
Lawyers for Titan say proposed amendments to the light- and heavy-industrial zoning districts are an economic burden on their plans for a proposed cement plant and the special-use permit process would put New Hanover County in a constant legal… Published March 25, 2011 http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20110325/ARTICLES/110329797
Commission to examine Castle Hayne’s petition to incorporate
Castle Hayne may take one step closer to becoming a town Monday, when a committee meets in Raleigh to take an early look at its incorporation petition. Published January 30, 2011 http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20110130/ARTICLES/110139991
Castle Hayne moves forward on incorporation
Castle Hayne submitted its petition to incorporate to the legislative commission that will ultimately recommend whether the area will get to become a town. Published November 23, 2010 http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20101123/ARTICLES/101129910
Proposed borders drawn for incorporated Castle Hayne
Castle Hayne leaders sat down recently and drew their hoped-for town on a map, carefully crafting borders to prevent problems as they push for incorporation. Published August 27, 2010 http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20100827/ARTICLES/100829674
In the US, the laws on this vary massively from state to state. NY law as ably described above is pretty far from the 50-state norm. It’s pretty typical of New England though. etc.
Around here I know that once a city / town exists (and those are legally synonymous terms in MO, unlike in NY) it can annex adjacent county land with an affirmative vote by the existing city residents and the to-be-annexed residents. The state or county doesn’t doesn’t get a say.
To be clear, the state doesn’t have a say in that the municipalities have devolved annexation powers. But no municipal corporation in the US has any kind of sovereignty; the state can always prevent or undo this sort of thing by the changing the statute (or state Constitution) to redraw borders and establish or abolish municipalities however they please.
Differs from state to state. In Oklahoma, there was (at one time) no minimum number of residents, so the state had a few family towns, cities with populations of 9 or 14. Some states restrict incorporations within the “sphere of influence” or extraterritorial jurisdiction of existing municipalities. California has a commission in each county that decides whether it’s allowed. But in most states, you simply demonstrate that you have the required population within the proposed borders, and hold an election regarding incorporation. You file papers with the Secretary of State same as any other corporation, and begin dreaming of hosting a Worlds Fair.
Precisely, a State could essentially do away with all cities and instead have everything exist at the county level or whatever if they so chose.
My state is probably the most insanely confusing of any political entity in the world when it comes to the incorporation of cities and other entities.
First, you have independent cities. There are 39 of them in Virginia, an independent city is its own separate legal entity directly holding a charter from the state. The land within the boundaries of an independent city is not part of any county in the Commonwealth of Virginia, even if the independent city is entirely land locked by a single surrounding county.
All incorporated cities are independent cities in Virginia. Incorporated towns are incorporated municipalities that are part of a county. There is no firm guide lines on incorporation as a town versus incorporation as a city. Many incorporated towns in Virginia are larger in population than independent cities, but because they are sub-county municipalities they have less powers and such as compared to an independent city (since an incorporated town is also under the jurisdiction of its county on some matters.)
To make it even better, we’ll confuse the situation a bit more. Arlington County is not a city at all, it is a county of the Commonwealth of Virginia. However because of its small geographic size and high urbanization, people often refer to “Arlington” Virginia as though it was a city, it isn’t, at all. Further, there are no incorporated towns inside the borders of Arlington County, so it is just a small area of Virginia that is purely county, even though it is extremely densely populated. Alexandria which is nearby, is an independent city, meaning it is not part of any county.
On top of that we also have two counties in Virginia: James City County and Charles City County which are counties and not independent cities, even though they have the word city in their name (so yes, we have two counties that are called cities, even though they aren’t.) At some time back in the colonial era these areas apparently had strange forms of incorporation and somehow as a result of that when they Virginia went through one of its reorganizations they became counties but kept city in their name.
Even more fun, is that in Virginia the county seat of a county can be an independent city. Meaning the county seat can actually be outside the boundaries of the county, because independent cities are not part of any county. For example Williamsburg is an independent city but is also the county seat of James City County.
What makes things even worse is for a lot of purposes (especially statistical) you have the independent cities treated as either counties or as part of their nearest/surrounding county, which makes things even more confusing to someone not familiar with the technical legal structure of the entities.
Back in the 1970s I lived in Lone Oak, KY. It was basically a collection of subdivisions and stores built around a couple of churches, a fire station and a public school. At some point, the residents became afraid they’d be annexed by the neighboring city of Paducah, so they got together, drew up a charter, had a public vote and incorporated themselves into a city.
About 25 years later they decided their city services weren’t any better than what they had gotten from the county, so they disincorporated themselves.
Like in Hawai’i. The only “city” in the state is the consolidated city-county of Honolulu. Although I’m not sure if Hawai’i ever had any municipal governments (other than Honolulu) in the first place.
‘City’ is defined by a larger political entity like a State or Country. Other terms like ‘Town’, ‘Village’, or ‘Hamlet’ may not be. In some localities you can form a Village or Hamlet by simply putting up a sign. Some geographic areas are simply defined by postal codes or school districts. Here in Rhode Island we have fictional entities like ‘South County’ (actually Washington County) and ‘Chariho’ (a school district covering the towns of Charlestown, Richmond, and Hopkinton).
In Massachusetts, we go the other direction. Every piece of land in the state is part of an incorporated city or town. The county governments have been disbanded in a few counties, and are largely irrelevant in the rest. The courts are organized on county lines, so there are some county-wide elections (for things like clerk of the court and register of probate), but no elections for any county government anywhere I’ve lived. When I lived in Cambridge, that was in Middlesex County, whose government was abolished in the 1960s, I think. Here in Boston, whatever governing Suffolk County does is done by the Boston City Council. In returning for having no say in county government, Winthrop, Revere and Chelsea pay none of the expenses of it either.
I think the rest of New England is similar, with unincorporated areas only existing in the sparsely populated northern reaches.
There’s also Chesapeake, Virginia, an independent city that used to be Norfolk County. The whole county incorporated as a city to keep other, neighboring cities from poaching land off of it.