Dayton threatens legal action if Lafayette annexes Carr property

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — After months of pleading with the Lafayette City Council in hopes of convincing the board to reconsider the voluntary annexation of Carr family property, officials from Dayton, Indiana, threatened legal litigation if the city moved forward with the vote.

This threat fell on deaf ears after the Lafayette City Council approved a resolution that would establish an annexation fiscal plan for the Carr property.

This vote symbolized the city’s willingness to move forward with the plan to incorporate the land into the city.

“Could you imagine West Lafayette annexing property on the east side of the river? Would you be angry? Would you roll over and be abused, or would you fight to keep this from happening? My guess is you would fight,” Marc Buhrmester, Dayton town councilman, said to the city council.

During the land annexation public hearing portion of the meeting, Buhrmester spoke to the city council and explained that Dayton was not willing to give up and was willing to fight over the matter.

While annexation shifts the tax revenue to the newly designated city, the Dayton objections have primarily focused on the fact that leaders believe this annexation will be detrimental to the growth of Dayton.

Dayton councilman threatens legal action against Lafayette

“We did not ask for this situation," Buhrmester added, "you put us in it with your last vote. The future of our town and our children is at stake. We have no option but to fight and if this continues, we’re prepared to keep fighting. We’ll keep this in litigation for years if we can or need to.”

This dispute initially started in February, when the Carr Family Farm II LLC filed a request with the Lafayette City Council to approve the voluntary annexation of approximately 132 acres of the family’s land into the city.

The land currently sits within the jurisdiction of the Tippecanoe County government and at the border of both Lafayette's and Dayton’s corporate limits.

Previous coverage:Dayton officials leave May Lafayette City Council meeting defeated

Dayton envisioned economic development on disputed land

When Dayton officials learned about this request, they became incredibly concerned about the land being annexed into Lafayette, seeing as the town had planned to use the land as a new economic development area.

Although Dayton had this plan in place for almost four decades, leaders only officially moved forward on it in 2019.

After years of negotiations between the town and the property owner, the two parties could not come to an agreement, which is what lead the Carr Family Farm II LLC to approach the City of Lafayette to voluntarily annex their land into the city.

Dayton's lawyer questions legality of timing

Prior to Buhrmester speaking to the board, the town’s legal representative, Cassandra Nielsen of Stoll Keenon Ogden, in Indianapolis, gave a list of reasons why Dayton objects to the annexation of the land into Lafayette.

The town does not believe that this annexation falls under the legal definition of a “super-voluntary annexation,” instead believing the city of Lafayette did not follow legal proceedings when dealing with this annexation.

“In addition, the public hearing is being held more than thirty days after the filing of the annexation petition in violation of IC 36-4-3-5.1(e). By the very words of the statute, the City must hold its public hearing 'no later than' thirty days after the filing of the petition. In our opinion, any public hearing after the expiration of the thirty days would be invalid and the ordinance, if adopted in reliance on the public hearing, would also be invalid,” reads a letter sent to Lafayette’s attorney regarding Dayton’s objections to the “super-voluntary annexation.”

Nielsen also noted a discrepancy that occurred when the property owner originally filed the request with the city. Initially, the owner filed it as Carr Family Farm LLC being the petitioner, but according to records, the original LLC ended in 2004.

This is what led the property owner to resubmit the request under a new LLC name that was established earlier this year, Carr Family Farm II LLC.

Besides that, Nielsen also highlighted how the annexation of the property would breach several water and wastewater service contracts between the town of Dayton and the city of Lafayette.

Ultimately, after hearing from Dayton’s legal representative and leadership, the city of Lafayette decided to move forward with the annexation process.

The final vote regarding this situation will be held at July’s Lafayette City Council meeting.

Noe Padilla is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email him at Npadilla@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter at 1NoePadilla.