The following is an excerpt from an email from Jeff Noble, Legislative Aide to Brent Ackerson. I thought that it was highly eloquent and informative on Bon Air History and the current regulatory state of things.
The question was put to Jeff about whether or not the Bon Air Neighborhood could succeed from the Consolidated City of Louisville-Jefferson County Kentucky.
Jeff's short answer was that Bon Air can't succeed as an independent municipality, but then he made a significant elaboration that I thought should be published.
I will make apologies because I did not ask first, but again because it is so good and show's Jeff's adeptness, I also thought it important to put such a historical perspective into the record. I also think that it is important to see what a smart man Brent has working for him. I have set off his comments in a different font.
Bon Air is partially in the former City of Louisville, since January 3, 2003 known as the Urban Services District (USD), and partially in unincorporated Jefferson County. USD property owners pay two sets of personal property taxes while unincorporated Jefferson County property owners pay one, in addition to state, school board, and other jurisdictional taxes.
The area of the Bon Air neighborhood which falls within the Urban Services District was annexed into the former City of Louisville in a piecemeal fashion beginning in 1951. As new subdivisions (and parts of subdivisions) were being built, both developers and residents wanted the more secure services the City of Louisville offered, such as sidewalks, streetlights, City garbage pickup, City fire, and City police, and they often petitioned to be annexed into the City. The first annexation in the area occurred April 26, 1951 as Ordinance 124, Series 1951. There were a total of eighteen annexations which eventually comprised the area generally known as the Bon Air neighborhood. As best I can tell, Mr.-----, your neighborhood was annexed on July 14, 1960 as Ordinance 140, Series 1960. In some cases, the homes which were annexed were done so by a block-by-block petition, with some blocks drawn in and some drawn out, based on the will of the majority of a block on a street. Meadow Drive is one great example of this type of annexation. Hikes Lane itself has eighteen crossings (nine in, nine out) of the former City/unincorporated boundary. Those changes in jurisdiction remain to this day. The last of the eighteen annexations for Bon Air occurred on September 15, 1964 as Ordinance #189, Series 1964. A final attempt to annex the balance of the Bon Air neighborhood was made in 1979 but failed.
This piecemeal annexation has left portions of Bon Air with USD services and portions without. Within the Bon Air neighborhood, some parcels on Goldsmith, Terrier, Maxon, Stratford, and Bon Air have land in both jurisdictions, the USD and unincorporated Jefferson County . . .
All of Louisville/Jefferson County Metro is governed by a series of statutes passed by the Kentucky General Assembly in March 2000, statutes which included the opportunity for the voters of all of Jefferson County to adopt a Merger of the two governments’ legislative and executive branches at the ballot box on November 7, 2000 and, if passed, a Merger Commission to draft how the new government would operate, and for that new government to commence business on January 3, 2003. The ballot initiative was approved, the Merger Commission did the nitty-gritty of combining the wheels and gears of the government, elections for a new legislative council of 26 members and a new Metro Mayor were held in November 2002, and the new government did, in fact, commence its life on January 3, 2003.
The new laws passed by the General Assembly are codified as KRS Chapter 67C. Our entire existence is reliant upon Chapter 67C of the Kentucky Revised Statutes, which have, from time-to-time, been revised by the legislature with no direct vote of either the council members of Louisville/Jefferson County nor the people of Louisville/Jefferson County. We live at the whims of the General Assembly.
One of the whims of the General Assembly, and the one directly on point with regard to your question, is 67C.111 (2) which reads: “Upon the adoption of a consolidated local government in a county containing a city of the first class, there shall be no further incorporations of cities within the county.” No new cities, no new incorporations, period. Until and unless Chapter 67C is amended in Frankfort by the General Assembly, what you have asked about is a legal impossibility. We have had a few cities “go out of business” since Merger began and we have had some annexations here and there of unincorporated areas of Jefferson County by some of the smaller cities. Jeffersontown, St. Matthews, and Indian Hills have all annexed previously unincorporated areas. But since 2003, there have been no new cities established nor will there be unless the law is amended. A notable single exception is the City of Heritage Creek in southern Jefferson County, which was formerly known as the City of Minor Lane Heights, and was formerly located about five miles northwest of its current location. A special set of statutes were passed for this particular city which was totally enveloped by the expansion of the industrial areas affiliated with the airport expansion.
