The Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled against the City of Lansing’s attempt to annex part of Lansing Township.
Last fall, the city and a group of Groesbeck neighborhood residents asked Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum to put a ballot initiative before voters that would have incorporated the neighborhood into Lansing’s municipal boundaries.
Advocates for the annexation said it would help relieve residents from debt that’s been accrued due to recent property developments.
But the township filed a motion that halted the annexation effort. It argued under the Charter Township Act a city has to surround the entirety of a municipality in order to annex a part of its community.
The Thursday Court of Appeals ruling upheld that motion and agreed with the township’s legal reasoning.
"If the charter township is not totally surrounded by a single city or village, then (the law) does not provide a method for a city or village to annex a portion of the township," the court wrote.
Last year, the city unsuccessfully attempted to have the Michigan Supreme Court weigh in on the case.
The judges noted that Groesbeck residents could seek annexation under a different provision of the law if they get 20% of registered voters to sign a petition supporting the effort.