BY DANI TIETZ
dani@mahometnews.com
The Village of Mahomet will vote on the annexation of 11 properties in the Lakeview Subdivision at tonight’s July 23 Board meeting.
Board members heard from Village attorney Joseph Chamley about the annexation of properties in Lakeview on July 16.
In March, approximately 40 properties in Lakeview received a petition to annex into the Village per their property covenant.
Of the 40 delivered petitions, the Village has received 18 signed. With a signed petition and a contiguous property, the Village can bring the properties into Village limits.
Some homeowners who signed the petitions are not yet contiguous, so they will be annexed in during the next round.
Chamley said that doing the annexations in chunks rather one-by-one will save the Village money. He also said waiting for all property owners to sign will take too much time.
Chamley said that one property owner promptly signed the petition, but has since sold the home and moved. Chamley has been in conversation with the new owner, and believes he will be able to get the new homeowner to sign the petition.
Chamley said that if the homeowner does not, “quite frankly, we have a petition on file that was executed by the owner of record” when the petitions were sent out.
Trustee Bill Oliger asked what will happen if a homeowner refuses to sign a petition.
Chamley said eventually, the Village would take action to forcibly annex the property.
“In some time from now if we are no longer successful in getting voluntary compliance, the Village can take legal action by way of, quite bluntly, a lawsuit,” Chamley said. “The Village sues the individual owners and forces the covenant in a court of law. That’s not our first choice at all, but the Village absolutely has that right.”
Village Administrator Patrick Brown said the process will be expensive for the homeowner.
But Chamley said, “we are prepared to do that, if necessary.”
