Rustic Lakes

properties.”

Rustic Lakes has 56 homes compared to a combined 458 in the other two com- munities.

“The city knew that the Bay Hill communities greatly outnumbered Rustic Lakes, and that the Bay Hill communities were largely in favor of annexation. By improperly grouping the three distinct neighborhoods together, the city caused the referendum to be a sham,” Reid wrote.

State law prevents munic- ipalit i es from creating “enclaves, pockets or finger areas” when annexing prop- erty. In the 1990s, when the law changed to give municipalities more annexation power, it was for the pur- pose of cleaning up boundaries and improving services.

State law requires a majority vote of registered elec- tors in the entire area up for annexation, not a majority from each community, as Rustic Lakes residents wanted.

Rustic Lakes residents fear they’ll lose their property rights because Palm Beach Gardens has no agricultur- al-residential zoning equal to the county’s. A city plan- ner and other city officials have assured Rustic Lakes representatives — both at meetings and in emails — that current residents and future property owners will be able to keep their agricultural animals.

The lawsuit also contends the city failed to mail a notice of the pending annexation ordinance the required 10 days before the first hearing on Dec. 7.

The city sent mailers to owners, postmarked Nov. 20, Temple said.

The time to challenge the annexation may have run out. On its face, state law says a 30-day clock to challenge annexations starts after an ordinance is passed. The City Council passed the ordinance on Jan. 4.

However, the law only says that any challenge “may” be filed within 30 days, not that it “must,” Reid said. Plus, the annexation didn’t take effect until it was approved by voters March 13.

If the referendum had failed, legal ac tion filed before then would have been moot, Reid wrote.