Brandon farmers, landowners speak out against proposed city annexations

Sonya Swink
Sioux Falls Argus Leader
A landowner opposes a proposed annexation of their land along East Redwood Boulevard on September 16th, 2021.

The signs are visible on the side of the road as drivers head to the east edge of Brandon on East Redwood Boulevard or along Chestnut/483rd Avenue.

"No forced city annex" reads one. Another has "Forced City Annex" crossed out.

The signs are in response to a January letter from the city of Brandon to homeowners in the area. Farmers and landowners are loudly expressing their frustration with a city study to annex their property into Brandon boundaries and say they are upset they haven't received more information, nine months after receiving the initial letter.

As surrounding communities have boomed, so with them their borders, as land on the outskirts is added to the city, or annexed.

A proposed annexation map provided to the Argus Leader by Dave and Sandi Elofson. They penciled in a section where land for a proposed school might be, but most of the red-marked land studied for annexation is currently pasture or farmland. September 16th, 2021.

The people who moved out to the edges now feel the cities they tried to move away from further encroaching on them, and with it, the possibility of annexation, which affects their right to rural water and can lead to higher taxes.

During a time when Brandon is swelling with more than 10,000 residents and the housing in nearby Sioux Falls is full, the city is laying claim to outer edges and running into a fight against farm owners who don't want any part of city tax, water, lighting and sewage systems, which would likely all be what the annexation might include.

Before the study to be conducted by the Southeastern Council of Governments was even posted, people like Martha Smith were preparing to verbally announce a pushback.

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Martha Smith and Sandi Elofson discuss how the City of Brandon sent them letters of annexation during a conversation on September 16, 2021.

“By the time they started talking annexation, that was land I’d given to my daughter and her husband,” Smith said of a newly-built home on their land on the southern section of the proposed annex. “You can’t live on annexation tax or sell if there’s a (high) tax on annexed land."

Although a letter of study went out Jan. 19, 2021 to residents, no further information has been given, residents told the Argus Leader.

“We’re just in the annexation study process, so we haven’t moved forward with anything, and a resolution of intent and a hearing will be sent to affected land owners,” Bryan Read, an administrator with the City of Brandon for the last 11 years, said. Read stated that most annexations are proposed by the landowners or developers and that this is a unique case.

Brandon Landowners frustrated at what they say is a lack of information

Landowners believe the study is shrouded in secrecy and will move quickly to a vote with little to no community feedback in the midst of it.

And the Elofsons, a 143-year family homestead, said that the move to even annex came just days after they successfully sought information about a water tower going in down the road, which sparked an OSHA investigation. They believe the notice of annexation was "in retaliation" to their water tower questions.

At a recent city council meeting, the Elofsons' concerns were not part of the agenda and therefore not heard.

An original deed to the Elofson land in Brandon as shown by Dave Elofson on September 16th, 2021.

But the City of Brandon insists the annexation is needed to make way for a school in four or more years, and for an encroaching subdivision.

“Redwood-Chestnut Annexation is kind of what we refer to it (as),” Read said. “Our policy has been that unless there’s a compelling reason, we won’t annex just to annex. There’s a new school and subdivision.”

A few years ago, some Sioux Falls residents of the SplitRock Heights area, near Dawley Farms, fought for public notice 30 days ahead of a study, essentially a paper on their door, before moving forward with an initial annexation study. They even got House Bill 1092 proposed, which would make it more difficult for cities to annex rural areas into its borders.

That bill failed in 2018.

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A parcel of the Elofson land in Brandon is now under study for annexation by the City of Brandon

But once a city moves forward with annexation, residents have time to gather signatures.

“If a petition is signed by 5% of registered voters in the combined municipality within 20 days, everything kind of gets put on hold. Then there’s a special election. We haven’t done any because, historically, I don’t know of any forced annexations in our history,” Read said.

The Elofsons believe the city is rushing to annex as it struggles to keep pace with growth, and that developers are “pressuring the City of Brandon to get that road (Chestnut Avenue) paved, and that would be a way to annex property for landowners.”

Annexation can change the land and its value

Those claims are unable to be confirmed or verified now, but the impact of annexation is very real.

When a city claims some land as part of its city limits, it means the land goes onto its water system and more. But the Smiths and Elofsons both stated they prefer the cost and quality of Rural Water over the City of Brandon's and don't want to be forced onto it.

The Elofsons see "no benefit" to being annexed even for future sale.

Along the east side of Redwood Boulevard/261 Street and Chestnut Avenue stands opposition signs to city annexation and a 'We the People' flag placed by landowners Dave and Sandi Elofson, landowners in a 143-year family homestead who stand to possibly be annexed by the City of Brandon.

The Elofsons and Smiths said earlier discussions with the city would have made them feel the decision was more in their hands, but now at this later stage they feel their rights to continue their way of life have been threatened with the forced annexation study. Neither want to sell.

Matthew Elliott, an associate economics professor and extension agribusiness specialist at South Dakota State University stated that annexation, in general, can often be to the benefit of farmers if they plan to sell, but it all depends on circumstances and dynamics of each piece of land.

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South Dakota's farming sector ranks 12th in the nation for gross income, according to newly-released data from the USDA. But changing dynamics show that family-owned farms (sole proprietorships) have shrunken in the state from 27,544 to 24,925 from 2012 to 2017, the most recent data available for that statistic. There's also pressure to sell.

"There's plenty of land west or south, they could've developed or annexed anywhere and chose here where people don't want to. Why? Makes no sense," son Jess Elofson said.

If annexed, the landowners say they might be stuck with land that is highly-taxed or changed to fit certain water pipelines, and therefore unattractive to sell to developers but that is still costly to keep under their own name. In that case, "the farmer (can) be made worse off by being annexed," Elliott said.

If annexation is proposed to go through, selling to developers, fighting in court or converting parcels of land to easements for public use are three options to combatting a city's claim to the land.

The City of Brandon has not set a date for the city hearing on the study but said it would be toward the end of 2021.