Proposed county splits (past and present)

[Pink Jazz]

I was wondering, does anyone here live in an area that once proposed to split from a larger county (past or present)?

I live in Gilbert, Arizona, and there have been several proposals in the past to split the East Valley of the Phoenix metropolitan area from Maricopa County.  Almost all of those proposals included the cities and towns of Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, and Queen Creek, with Mesa as the county seat.  Some proposals also added the City of Tempe, and a few even added the City of Scottsdale, the Town of Guadalupe, and even the Phoenix neighborhood of Ahwatukee.  Some of the proposed names of the new county included Red Mountain County, Rio Salado County, and even Orange County. 

In addition to a county split, there was also another proposal in the early 1990s for the East Valley to leave Maricopa County and join Pinal County to boost Pinal County's population numbers.

Do you live in an area that was once (or still is) considered for a county split?

[DandyDan]

I myself don't live in such an area, but I seem to recall a plan to split the northwestern part of Cook County, Illinois (basically everything west of O'Hare Airport) into its own county.

Of course, if you go back far enough in history, everything seems to be split from something else.

[Big John]

Northern Fulton County, GA wants to split into its own Milton County.

[GaryV]

Almost all the counties in Michigan were at one time part of another county.  I recall seeing a map that showed Wayne County was once nearly half the Lower Peninsula.

There is no mechanism for counties similar to states being territories before being granted statehood.  The frontier areas were loosely governed by an established county, until an area became populated enough to organize as it's own county.

[golden eagle]

I don't know if it's been proposed, but San Bernardino County could use some splitting.

BTW, how did Broomfield, CO, become its own county?

[The High Plains Traveler]

I don't know if it's been proposed, but San Bernardino County could use some splitting.

BTW, how did Broomfield, CO, become its own county?

The city of Broomfield was in three counties, and it concluded this created administrative problems. So, it proposed to form a city-county like Denver. I believe it had to receive statewide ballot approval.

[Zeffy]

If my memory serves me right, Mercer County was formed out of portions of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties.

[oscar]

There have been recurrent proposals to split Hawaii County HI in half, by people on the Kailua-Kona side of the island who didn't like having to shlep on the then-dangerous HI 200 to Hilo.  Major improvements to HI 200 have since made the trip faster and safer, so the county split idea has died down.

AIUI, when the territorial government set up Hawaii's counties in 1905, the intent was to split Hawaii island into two counties.  However, the split was technically defective for some reason, and before the defect could be fixed, the government thought better of the idea.

Alaska's boroughs, etc. are constantly changing (to the consternation of serious county-counters), but believe it or not there have been some failed proposals.  For example, Eagle River sought to leave the Anchorage municipality, until the math was done on the financial consequences and people thought better of the idea.

California has had at least two recent serious county split proposals, one for the part of Los Angeles County north of the mountains to split off, and another for a Santa Maria-based county (IIRC, to be called Mission County) to be carved out of Santa Barbara County.  At least the latter went before the voters for approval, and failed at that stage.

Virginia is another state with a history of county changes (successful and otherwise), but I'm not on top of that history, so others can chime in.  Usually the changes have been mergers rather than splits.  My own county, Arlington, is the product of a 19th century split when Alexandria left what was then called Alexandria County to become Alexandria independent city. 

[bing101]

Orange County,  California was once a section of Los Angeles county in the 1850's

[hbelkins]

I live in what was once part of Kentucky County, Va.

[tidecat]

Kentucky County, VA became 3 counties in 1780 (Fayette, Jefferson, and Lincoln) prior to seceding from Virginia and becoming the 15th state in the Union.  In the next 132 years, Kentucky would add 117 counties for a total of 120.

[bandit957]

Kentucky needs to allow the inner cities to split from their respective counties. The cities are tired of paying for the suburbs' waste.

[tidecat]

It may be too late for that.  I live in the 40299 ZIP Code, but I live in the Urban Service District, which is the old city of Louisville.  I can drive less than one mile and cross in and out of the Jeffersontown and Louisville city limits multiple times.  There are several other disjointed parts of Louisville like that.

All of Lexington's suburbs are in different counties.  The only places they come close are near the Jessamine County line, and the Scott County line.  The last incorporated city in Fayette County other than Lexington was Athens, which disincorporated prior to the 1974 merger of Lexington and Fayette County.

[Pete from Boston]

Dukes County, New York, was split into Dukes and Nantucket Counties, Massachusetts Bay.

[TheStranger]

It may be too late for that.  I live in the 40299 ZIP Code, but I live in the Urban Service District, which is the old city of Louisville.  I can drive less than one mile and cross in and out of the Jeffersontown and Louisville city limits multiple times.  There are several other disjointed parts of Louisville like that.

Isn't Jeffersontown one of the pre-2003 Louisville suburbs in Jefferson County that remains quasi-independent?

A quick Wikipedia look at Jefferson County sheds some light as to why the city-county merger occurred: many subdivisions over the years established themselves as extremely small (sixth class) cities (less than 1000 people) otherwise indistinguishable from anywhere else in the area, examples including Langdon Place, Meadowview Estates, and Westwood.  All of those are still independent BUT at the same time are tied in to Louisville Metro as a whole.

[The High Plains Traveler]

In recent history, New Mexico has formed two new counties; Los Alamos (actually a city-county) from Sandoval after WWII, and Cibola, from Valencia in 1981. In Arizona, La Paz split off from Yuma in 1983. Broomfield, CO was mentioned above.

[PHLBOS]

In PA, Delaware County was originally part of Chester County.

[Pink Jazz]

In Arizona, La Paz split off from Yuma in 1983.

Yep, this is what led to Arizona making county splitting rules stricter.  Former State Senator Russell Pearce wanted at various points since then to ease these rules in order to split the East Valley from Maricopa County.

[6a]

Northern Fulton County, GA wants to split into its own Milton County.

Milton was its own county in the past, the folks there just want to re-form it. There was a third county in south Fulton but the name escapes me.

[lordsutch]

Northern Fulton County, GA wants to split into its own Milton County.

Milton was its own county in the past, the folks there just want to re-form it. There was a third county in south Fulton but the name escapes me.

Campbell County, abolished the same year as Milton County. If anything, Georgia has way too many counties already, although the increasing number of consolidated governments is at least reducing some of the excess overhead associated with having too many political subdivisions.

In Tennessee in the 1990s during the mess over school consolidation and annexation proposals involving Memphis, there was a half-hearted effort to establish a "Neshoba County" taking in most of the rural and suburban area of Shelby County, but it foundered on the state requirement for minimum land area I believe.

A couple of the counties with two seats in Mississippi have two seats because there were originally plans to  split them at some point, but the split never happened for whatever reason (typically a better road or bridge made it easier to govern as a single unit and so the split was abandoned).

[Brandon]

I myself don't live in such an area, but I seem to recall a plan to split the northwestern part of Cook County, Illinois (basically everything west of O'Hare Airport) into its own county.

Of course, if you go back far enough in history, everything seems to be split from something else.

There have been two proposals for Lincoln County, Illinois, to be made out of Cook County.

One was the northwest part of the county in the late 1970s (Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, etc).  Another was the south part of the county in the 2000s (Burbank, Matteson, Orland Park, etc).

[NWI_Irish96]

I myself don't live in such an area, but I seem to recall a plan to split the northwestern part of Cook County, Illinois (basically everything west of O'Hare Airport) into its own county.

Of course, if you go back far enough in history, everything seems to be split from something else.

There have been two proposals for Lincoln County, Illinois, to be made out of Cook County.

One was the northwest part of the county in the late 1970s (Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, etc).  Another was the south part of the county in the 2000s (Burbank, Matteson, Orland Park, etc).

I don't think politics will ever allow Cook Co. to get split, but it really needs to be split into three counties.  Chicago city should be its own county, and the suburbs should split north/south , with Oak Park, River Forest, Melrose Park and Berkeley going with the north and Cicero, Berwyn, Forest Park, Maywood, Bellwood and Hillside going with the south. 

[freebrickproductions]

Alabama used to have a county called "Decatur County" that was split between Madison and Jackson Counties.

[vdeane]

If you go back far enough, most of upstate NY and all of Vermont was once part of Albany County.  As the early boundaries were largely undefined, you could say that everything northwest of the Hudson Valley was once owned by New York.

[jwolfer]

The beaches of Duval County FL were proposed ( along with Ponte Vedra beach in St Johns County) to become Ocean County, FL.

The cities of Jacksonville Beach, Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach are not part of the city of Jacksonville however the government of Duval County and the city of Jacksonville are consolidated, for those cities as well as Baldwin in western Duval. The Jacksonville city government is their county government. That why the city council has representatives for the Beaches and the former mayor of Jacksonville actually lived in the city of Neptune Beach.

There is a part of Jacksonville city limits east of the ICW but the mailing address is Atlantic Beach. This was to be part of Ocean County as well.

It didn't happen.