Municipal annexation is a process by which a municipality acquires new territory, most commonly by expanding its boundaries into an adjacent unincorporated area. This has been a common response of cities to
urbanization in neighboring areas. It may be done because the neighboring urban areas seek municipal services or because a city seeks control over its
suburbs or neighboring unincorporated areas.
In the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, all local governments are considered "creatures of the state" according to
Dillon's Rule, which resulted from the work of
John Forrest Dillon on the law of
municipal corporations. Dillon's Rule implies, among other things, that the boundaries of any
jurisdiction falling under state government can be modified by state government action. For this reason, examples of municipal annexation are distinct from
annexations involving
sovereign state
A sovereign state is a State (polity), state that has the highest authority over a territory. It is commonly understood that Sovereignty#Sovereignty and independence, a sovereign state is independent. When referring to a specific polity, the ter ...
s.
Shoestring annexation

A "shoestring annexation" is a term used for an annexation by a
city
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
,
town
A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city.
The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
or other
municipality in which it acquires new territory that is contiguous to the existing territory but is only connected to it by a thin strip of land. It is sometimes called a "flagpole annexation" because the territory resembles a flagpole, in which the connection is the "pole" and the annexed territory the "flag".
Reasons
In some states, municipalities are prohibited from annexing land not directly connected to their existing territory. A shoestring or flagpole annexation allows the municipality to do so.
Such annexations are sometimes used when a municipality seeks to acquire
unincorporated developed land, such as a newly built
subdivision separated from it by undeveloped open space. They may also be used when a municipality desires to annex a commercial or industrial area without taking over intervening residential areas, so as to collect tax revenues from the businesses or industry without having to provide services (such as
electricity
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...
and
garbage
Garbage, trash (American English), rubbish (British English), or refuse is waste material that is discarded by humans, usually due to a perceived lack of utility. The term generally does not encompass bodily waste products, purely liquid or ...
collection) to residents. Such uses of the technique are often criticized and derided as a form of
gerrymandering, and have in fact been used for the purpose of manipulating vote distribution among election precincts and districts.
A related strategy is called strip annexation, which involves annexing a narrow strip that encloses a large block of unincorporated land. Strip annexation was widely used by the municipalities of the
Phoenix metropolitan area during the 1970s to preemptively gain control of large areas of land before other municipalities, without having to annex more than a thin strip surrounding a large so-called
county island. The strip protected the county island from being annexed by other municipalities, thus giving the strip-annexing municipality the ability to slowly annex portions of the county island over time. One such annexation by
Chandler in 1974 spurred nearby
Gilbert to create the largest county island to date by annexing a strip no more than 200 feet wide that enclosed 51 square miles of unincorporated
Maricopa County. The annexation was challenged in court and, although found legal, eventually led to legislation in 1980 outlawing strip annexation. Some municipalities rushed to annex before the law took effect, such as
Scottsdale, which annexed a 10 foot wide strip enclosing an 86 square mile county island.
Examples
Port of Los Angeles
The
Port of Los Angeles together with the
San Pedro,
Wilmington and
Harbor City neighborhoods of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, are connected to the main part of the city by what is called locally the "
Shoestring Strip" between
Figueroa Street and
Vermont Avenue and between
Western and
Normandie avenues to the south.
O'Hare Airport
O'Hare Airport is municipally connected to the city of
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
via a narrow strip of land, approximately 200 feet wide, along Foster Avenue from the
Des Plaines River
The Des Plaines River ( ) is a river that flows southward for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 13, 2011 through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois''American H ...
to the airport. This land was annexed in the 1950s to assure the airport was contiguous with the city to keep it under city control. The strip is bounded on the north by
Rosemont and the south by
Schiller Park.
Allston-Brighton
The
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
neighborhoods of
Allston and
Brighton were part of an independent town of Brighton before being annexed by Boston. They are presently connected to the remainder of the city by the
Boston University campus. At the time of the annexation,
Brookline extended to the
Charles River and separated Boston and Brighton. As a result, a shoestring annexation was obtained by Boston from Brookline when Brighton joined Boston. This was made necessary by
Brookline's refusal to join Boston a year before Brighton's annexation.
Santa Barbara Municipal Airport
Santa Barbara Municipal Airport is connected to the city of
Santa Barbara, despite being located in the center of the city of
Goleta, through 300 feet wide strip of land mostly located under the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
.
South San Diego
South San Diego, located next to the
Mexico–United States border, is physically separated from the rest of
San Diego by the cities of
National City and
Chula Vista. A narrow strip of land at the bottom of
San Diego Bay connects these southern neighborhoods with the rest of the city.
West Grove
West Grove, the western portion of the city of
Garden Grove in
Orange County, California, is separated from the rest of the city by the city of
Stanton. The two portions of the city are connected to the rest of the city by a narrow strip of land along Garden Grove Boulevard from Beach Boulevard to Hoover Street.
See also
*
Municipal annexation
*
Municipal deannexation in the United States
*
Amalgamation (politics)
*
Enclave and exclave
*
Boroughitis
*
Paper township
References
Notes
Further reading
*{{cite crabgrass
*Staff
MRSC PUBLICATIONS › Annexation Handbook PublicationMunicipal Research & Services Center of Washington
Annexation
Political geography
Metropolitan areas of the United States
Urban planning
Local government in the United States