The Town of Cape Charles has canceled a very important public hearing that was scheduled for March 16th. The hearing was meant to receive comments on the proposed amendment to the 1990 Annexation Agreement. The town was supposed to unveil what had been negotiated relative to developer liability for future expansion of the water and wastewater infrastructure.
The proposed agreement was due to be posted to www.capecharles.org by March 9th.
Many have been curious as to the actual amendment to the agreement, and how the current Law No.27, which is a legislative act of the State of Virginia can be altered.
There are several Annexation agreements. All are exhibits to and are made a part of the Annexation Orders. There are two (2) Annexation orders. Cape Charles, in March 2002 had the Virginia Legislature, enact a re-statement of each and every aspect of the 1991 Annexation Agreements and Annexation Orders that became effective January 1, 1992. There are no dates by which any of the Annexation Agreements expire and are up for renewal. They, like the Municipal Ordinances of the Town of Cape Charles, such Legislative Acts, are not subject to judicial Review. Only the State Legislature a can modify the Annexation Orders and or Any Agreement that would in effect modify the Annexation Orders of the Special Annexation Court for Northampton County and the Circuit Court of Northampton County.
The legislative acts of both the Town of CapeCharles, through its properly enacted Municipal Ordinances of 1990,1991 and 1993(the PUD Municipal Ordinance for Bay Creek) and Law No. 27 enacted by both the Special Annexation Court for Northampton County and the Circuit Court of Northampton
County, effective January 1, 1992 were reaffirmed by the “Virginia General Assembly in March 2002 recorded in the Civil Common Law Order Book, at page 619, in the Clerks Office of said Court, be
enforced.
The Annexation Orders, by both Courts included ALL of the Agreements,
exhibits, evidence and Report of the Commission on Local Government
The Town Agreements were argued, settled. As a result, the legislative
acts: the Ordinances and the Orders included the Annexation Agreement
of November 25, 1991, between the Town and the County, specifically
settling the ‘related issues of concern to the parties’, by which the
County withdrew its “objections to the proposed annexation by the
Town….” and the Town “agreed to a settlement of the pending
annexation suit with the County subject to the approval of this
[Annexation] Agreement by the Court.….”
Further, the Town, the County, and Brown & Root I, Inc., filed as
evidence with the Courts, an AGREEMENT, known as the Settlement
Agreement, dated November 25, 1991, which identified “the subsequent
purchasers of individual lots or other incidents of individual
ownership….” as a party to the annexation proceedings and provided
relief to such subsequent purchasers from any obligation of Brown and
Root contained herein. This Settlement Agreement further stated that
the obligations of Brown & Root, contained herein, except as provided
above, run with the land and be binding upon the subsequent owners of
Accawmacke Plantation, which owners shall assume all of those
obligations and relieve the prior owner thereof.” Such obligations as to
the contractual details as found in the Town Agreements of March 1990
and November 1991, include the contractual specifics found in ¶ 5 of the
Town Agreements between the Town and Brown & Root. The
Settlement Agreement by its own admission into the Courts’ Order, a
legislative Act, provided third-party beneficiary status to the property owners in the original Town jurisdiction (the North Tract) before Annexation in 1992.
Jurisdiction. Annexation Orders prescribed and proscribed with or
without dates and or limitations are not subject to the statute of
limitations as if it were a contract, and not legislative acts.