How Unincorporated areas formed

[Ralph Ace]

I had a quick question on how unincorporated areas formed.

Why these areas where not part of a municipality to begin with.

[Matt Devincenzo]

Is there a specific area you're thinking of? Do you have what we refer to as "County Islands" in your area that are small dots of unincorporated land inside the City?

The first thing is unincorporated areas don't form, every area was originally unincorporated and the City forms. All land is 'unincorporated' until a City is created that changes its municipal structure. So a few ways this happens are:

1) that area was originally excluded possibly because it was some sort of County govt parcel or other specific feature they wanted kept out of the City.

2) cities expand over time by annexing parcels in. Typically there are City initiated annexation and owner annexations. If someone was opposing a City action and had political support or was just too ornery they may have been left out on purpose. 

3) some areas look like they make sense for a city service, but there may be some underlying issue. Locally I know of one that water/sewer makes more sense from the adjacent City than the city its supposed to end up in. So we're coordinating with both cities to essentially be approved by the current city and then 'transfered' into the city that will actually provide service.