AGO IAL050107.

• Case Date: April 20, 2007
• Court: New Mexico

New Mexico Attorney General Opinions 2007. AGO IAL050107. April 20, 2007IAL050107The Honorable Nathan "Nate" CoteState RepresentativeP.O. Box 537 Organ, NM 88052The Honorable Leonard Lee RawsonState Senator P.O. Box 996 Las Cruces, NM 88004The Honorable Mary Jane GarciaState SenatorP.O. Box 22 Dona Ana, NM 88032 Re: Opinion Request - City of Las Cruces Annexation Proposal Dear Representative Cote, Senators Garcia and Rawson: This week you all asked for a legal opinion on the same basic question regarding the procedures that govern a pending annexation proposal being considered by the City of Las Cruces. We therefore respond to your requests with this joint reply.(fn1)Question: At which point does the statutory time period during which a city council of a municipality must approve or disapprove a petition for annexation, pursuant to NMSA 1978, § 3-7-17.1 (1998, as amended through 2003), commence to run, and what are the relevant dates that apply to the pending annexation request for Vistas at Presidio I? Conclusion: Procedurally, the governing statute, Section 3-7-17.1, contemplates that (1) a proper annexation petition is presented to the city council; (2) the city council submits that petition to the county commission for comment; (3) the county commission has thirty days within which to submit comments to the city council, presumably by submitting such comments in an appropriate manner to assure that it is official and accurate; (4) the city council has a deadline of a total of sixty days from its receipt of the presented petition to render a decision; and (5) during the initial thirty-day waiting period during which the county commission may make comment, the city council is disabled from acting with respect to an annexation petition. Implicitly, a city council must consider any timely-made comments of the county commission when the city council makes its decision whether to enact an annexation ordinance. Implicitly, also, any untimely comments, i.e. comments that a county commission may make after the statutory thirty-day deadline period for comment, may or may not be considered by the city council in the exercise of its discretion.As applied to the specific facts in the situation presented, we conclude that the statutory timelines under Section 3-7-17.1 do not permit the Las Cruces City Council to take action at its scheduled meeting on April 23 on the proposed annexation application pertaining to Vistas at Presidio I. We believe that the earliest date that the City Council could lawfully take action is 30 days after April 16, which is the date the petition was formally presented to the City Council. We therefore conclude that the earliest date by which the City Council could lawfully act on the petition is May 16, 2007, and the latest date by which the City Council must make a decision to approve or disapprove is 60 days after April 16, or June 15, 2007. Facts: These questions arise in the context of a proposed City of Las Cruces ordinance approving an annexation for the Vistas at Presidio I. Giving rise to this proposed ordinance is an application for annexation submitted to the City on or about January 15, 2007, together with applications pertaining to zoning and to the master plan. These other applications involve Vistas at Presidio I and II. Following staff reviews, the various applications were submitted to the City's development review committee and the City's...