The city of Mason will examine whether it can decline to accept land if an annexation request the city is not a party to is approved by the State Boundary Commission.
It comes as a Vevay Township landowner pursues annexation for the site of a potential data center development.
City Council members requested the opinion after holding four hours of town hall discussions with community members over two weeks.
Mayor Russell Whipple said the city doesn’t have any power to stop the project at this stage in the process and should focus instead on having strong zoning requirements in place to regulate any potential development.
“This is the wrong fight at the wrong time. We have nothing before us to say no to,” Whipple said. “All we can do now is prepare for the possibility that we have to say yes, and that's what we are trying to do.”
The legal opinion will be made public and included in a future City Council packet.
The city will also publish copies of all written communications between City Manager Deborah Stuart and Vevay Township regarding data centers and failed negotiations for a conditional land transfer that would have allowed the localities to share tax revenue.
Whipple said the city consistently revealed as much information as they could, as soon as they were legally allowed to do so.
“I think we’ve been overly transparent at times,” Whipple said. “Because, at times, the things we’ve said have then been twisted around and regurgitated and formed into some other animal that they weren’t and thrown back at us.”
