Request By:
Honorable Frank A. Wichmann
Attorney at Law
500 First National Bank Building
Sixth and Madison Avenue
Covington, Kentucky 41011
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
As City Attorney for the city of Erlanger [a city of the third class] , you raise the following question:
"Please advise me of your opinion of the maximum time allowed by KRS 81.280 for a protest to the annexation by a Third Class city of unincorporated territory in which is located an industrial plant. "
Under the circumstances, we believe that the time permitted for protesting annexation pursuant to KRS 81.280 would be thirty (30) days following the enactment of the annexing ordinance.
KRS 81.280(4), pertaining to the protesting of unincorporated territory in which industrial plants are located, simply provides that any person within the area proposed to be annexed shall have the right to file a protest and have the protest heard and determined as now provided by the existing statutes. Since the city of Erlanger is a city of the third class, reference must be made to KRS 81.190 which provides that any city of said class may annex any territory to the city in the same manner and under the same procedure as is provided in KRS 81.100 and 81.110 for the annexation of unincorporated territory by cities of the first class, with certain exceptions enumerated under subsections (1), (2) and (3) which are not pertinent to your question.
KRS 81.110(1), pertaining to the annexation of unincorporated territory by first class cities, provides that within thirty (30) days after the enactment of an ordinance proposing annexation of unincorporated territory, one or more residents or freeholders of the territory proposed to be annexed may file a petition in circuit court, which will be heard as provided in this section.
It would thus be our opinion that the 30-day protest provision referred to in subsection (1) of KRS 81.110 would apply with respect to any protest filed in connection with the proposed annexation of unincorporated territory in which is located an industrial plant [KRS 81.280] in so far as cities of the third class are concerned.