Municipal Orphans

[roadman65]

We had state orphans once on this site, now what about Municipal Orphans where one part of town is severed from the rest of the community by a waterway or poor road system.

Berkley Township, Ocean County, NJ has land on both sides of Barnagate Bay that are not connected by bridge.  In fact police and school buses must cut through both Toms River, Seaside Heights, and Seaside Park to reach the area located on the barrier island between the US mainland and the Atlantic Ocean making this part of the township miles away from its mother so to speak.

Clark, NJ has a neighborhood that is severed from the rest of Clark do to not being connected to the rest of the Township's road and street network as one must enter Woodbridge Township, Middlesex County to reach these streets not connected.  Not only is Holland Drive and Hayes and Rahway Avenues and even State Street orphaned from the rest of Clark, but from the county as well as Clark is located in Union thus making this neighborhood not even connected to the rest of Union either.

Any other such instances where municipal roadways and/or neighborhoods are orphaned from the rest of its community?

[hotdogPi]

MA 97 in Methuen does not connect to any other road until you enter an adjacent town (Salem NH or Haverhill MA).

[Brandon]

In Illinois, (oddly, like Alanland) it is and is not allowed.

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=006500050K7-1-1

(65 ILCS 5/7-1-1) (from Ch. 24, par. 7-1-1)
    Sec. 7-1-1. Annexation of contiguous territory. Any territory that is not within the corporate limits of any municipality but is contiguous to a municipality may be annexed to the municipality as provided in this Article. For the purposes of this Article any territory to be annexed to a municipality shall be considered to be contiguous to the municipality notwithstanding that the territory is separated from the municipality by a strip parcel, railroad or public utility right-of-way, or former railroad right-of-way that has been converted to a recreational trail, but upon annexation the area included within that strip parcel, right-of-way, or former right-of-way shall not be considered to be annexed to the municipality. For purposes of this Section, "strip parcel" means a separation no wider than 30 feet between the territory to be annexed and the municipal boundary.

OK, so you cannot annex what you cannot directly serve, but...

Except in counties with a population of more than 600,000 but less than 3,000,000, territory which is not contiguous to a municipality but is separated therefrom only by a forest preserve district, federal wildlife refuge, open land or open space that is part of an open space program, as defined in Section 115-5 of the Township Code, or conservation area, may be annexed to the municipality pursuant to Section 7-1-7 or 7-1-8, but only if the annexing municipality can show that the forest preserve district, federal wildlife refuge, open land, open space, or conservation area creates an artificial barrier preventing the annexation and that the location of the forest preserve district, federal wildlife refuge, open land, open space, or conservation area property prevents the orderly natural growth of the annexing municipality. It shall be conclusively presumed that the forest preserve district, federal wildlife refuge, open land, open space, or conservation area does not create an artificial barrier if the property sought to be annexed is bounded on at least 3 sides by (i) one or more other municipalities (other than the municipality seeking annexation through the existing forest preserve district, federal wildlife refuge, open land, open space, or conservation area), (ii) forest preserve district property, federal wildlife refuge, open land, open space, or conservation area, or (iii) a combination of other municipalities and forest preserve district property, federal wildlife refuge property, open land, open space, or conservation area. It shall also be conclusively presumed that the forest preserve district, federal wildlife refuge, open land, open space, or conservation area does not create an artificial barrier if the municipality seeking annexation is not the closest municipality within the county to the property to be annexed. The territory included within such forest preserve district, federal wildlife refuge, open land, open space, or conservation area shall not be annexed to the municipality nor shall the territory of the forest preserve district, federal wildlife refuge, open land, open space, or conservation area be subject to rights-of-way for access or services between the parts of the municipality separated by the forest preserve district, federal wildlife refuge, open land, open space, or conservation area without the consent of the governing body of the forest preserve district or federal wildlife refuge. The changes made to this Section by Public Act 91-824 are declaratory of existing law and shall not be construed as a new enactment.
    For the purpose of this Section, "conservation area" means an area dedicated to conservation and owned by a not-for-profit organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or any area owned by a conservation district.

So one can annex through a forest preserve, and it doesn't have to be able to be directly served, but only in counties with the above population.  And yet, there's more...

In counties that are contiguous to the Mississippi River with populations of more than 200,000 but less than 255,000, a municipality that is partially located in territory that is wholly surrounded by the Mississippi River and a canal, connected at both ends to the Mississippi River and located on property owned by the United States of America, may annex noncontiguous territory in the surrounded territory under Sections 7-1-7, 7-1-8, or 7-1-9 if that territory is separated from the municipality by property owned by the United States of America, but that federal property shall not be annexed without the consent of the federal government.

More loopholes and exceptions.

For the purposes of this Article, any territory to be annexed to a municipality that is located in a county with more than 500,000 inhabitants shall be considered to be contiguous to the municipality if only a river and a national heritage corridor separate the territory from the municipality. Upon annexation, no river or national heritage corridor shall be considered annexed to the municipality.

And in Illinois, if you are the first to a highway, you must annex the highway.

The new boundary shall extend to the far side of any adjacent highway and shall include all of every highway within the area annexed. These highways shall be considered to be annexed even though not included in the legal description set forth in the petition for annexation. When any land proposed to be annexed includes any highway under the jurisdiction of any township, the Township Commissioner of Highways, the Board of Town Trustees, the Township Supervisor, and the Township Clerk shall be notified in writing by certified or registered mail before any court hearing or other action is taken for annexation. In the event that a municipality fails to notify the Township Commissioner of Highways, the Board of Town Trustees, the Township Supervisor, and the Township Clerk of the annexation of an area within the township, the municipality shall reimburse that township for any loss or liability caused by the failure to give notice. If any municipality has annexed any area before October 1, 1975, and the legal description in the petition for annexation did not include the entire adjacent highway, any such annexation shall be valid and any highway adjacent to the area annexed shall be considered to be annexed notwithstanding the failure of the petition to annex to include the description of the entire adjacent highway.

Interesting, isn't it.

[Roadrunner75]

Berkley Township, Ocean County, NJ has land on both sides of Barnagate Bay that are not connected by bridge.  In fact police and school buses must cut through both Toms River, Seaside Heights, and Seaside Park to reach the area located on the barrier island between the US mainland and the Atlantic Ocean making this part of the township miles away from its mother so to speak.

In this very same township, the Manitou Park section is only accessible by driving through the borough of South Toms River - at least legally by paved road (there are some trails along power lines).

The municipal building and police station for Berkeley are also located in the middle of nowhere on the west side of the Garden State Parkway, in what at one time would have been planned for significant development before environmental / Pinelands regulations probably did this in.

[Pete from Boston]

The three pieces of the 474 acres of South Hackensack, New Jersey, are separated by towns that seceded from the township it was the last remnants of.  The same was once true of the Township of Washington in Bergen County.

I have a distinct feeling we have been over all of this before.

[1995hoo]

Very hard to see on Google Maps: Arizona Street in Arlington, Virginia, is a minuscule street connecting to no other street in Arlington County. Look at the left side of the map underneath the words "Custis Memorial Parkway" where Arlington's borders taper to a point. If you zoom in the lines disappear, which is why I left it zoomed out. The street that Fairfax County and the City of Falls Church call Meridian Street crosses into Arlington for roughly 100 feet and changes names to Arizona Street to conform to Arlington's street-naming system.

Map showing roughly where Arizona Street is:  http://goo.gl/maps/QWW4r

Map showing Arlington's borders: http://goo.gl/maps/6UcHd

One of the District of Columbia boundary stones is located just off the street there in a small park. Annoyingly, on Street View there's a car parked so as to obstruct the view.



Slightly less odd: The Landmark Mews neighborhood in Fairfax County, Virginia, is accessible by car only by driving through the City of Alexandria. Slightly zoomed-out Google Maps view to show the city limits– http://goo.gl/maps/QWtEh

Landmark Mews is located to the left (on the map) of Stulz Road just south of I-395. The county/city line runs down the middle of Stulz Road. (My wife lived in a condo near there before we got married and I used Stulz Road all the time going to and from her place.)

[wxfree]

The city of Brazos Bend, Texas is just north of Granbury on Lake Granbury.  It's made up of a gated community west of the lake and a row of houses right along the lake on the east side.  The east side is in a lakeside development with many other houses, but only the ones right along the lake are in the city, along with houses on the other side of the lake.  There is no bridge between the two parts.  The eastern shore of the lake at that location is a 150-foot bluff, while the west side is just above the lake, so a crossing would be very expensive.  Driving between the two parts is 8 miles of distance including a high-traffic part of Granbury, or 10 miles along mostly quiet back roads.

In this case, I'm not sure which "side" is the orphan.  Neither has any prominence.  They're just two seemingly unrelated parcels that are geographically close but very separated.  Getting from one side directly to the other requires a boat, a climb up or down the cliff, and trespassing in at least two private yards (one on each side of the lake).

Also, Texas law sometimes allows cities to annex non-contiguous territory if that territory is owned by the city.  This makes sense to me since the only property owner affected is the city and it allows the city to enforce ordinances on property it owns.

[cpzilliacus]

Hyde County, North Carolina might qualify.  Most of the county's land area is on mainland North Carolina, but it also includes Ocracoke Island, to which there is no fixed highway connection (the only public connection is by ferry, Swan Quarter to Ocracoke.).

Closer to home for me, the extreme northern tip of Montgomery County, Maryland cannot be reached except by leaving the county on Md. 27 (Ridge Road), and crossing far western Howard County, before re-entering a narrow strip of Montgomery County, which crosses Md. 27 between the two legs of Penn Shop Road (the northern point of the county is at Parr's Spring, which is also the source of the Patapsco River).

[NE2]

If we're including counties, Loudon County, TN has an actual exclave in the southwest.

Also St. Martin Parish, LA.

[renegade]

Lost Peninsula, Michigan is part of Erie Township in Monroe County.  It is accessible only by traveling into Toledo, Ohio, crossing the Ottawa River then turning north back into Michigan.

[PHLBOS]

In Delaware County, PA; due to the various boroughs that were carved out of both Darby & Springfield townships over a century ago, there are now 2 separate pieces of each township that aren't directly connected with the other.

[spooky]

The Humarock section of Scituate, MA does not connect to the rest of the town by land. One must travel by water or go through the neighboring town of Marshfield.

[jp the roadgeek]

Fisher's Island, NY.  Part of Suffolk County, patrolled by county police, 631 area code, part of the Town of Southold, which is essentially the tip of the North Fork of Long Island.  To get there,  police would have to take ferry from Orient Point to New London, CT, then another from New London to the island.  Nearest hospital is New London, nearest shopping areas are in New London, and the island has a "06" CT ZIP code, and is part of the Norwich (CT) Archdiocese.  Only 2 miles offshore from Groton, CT, but a different state.

[Pete from Boston]

So basically, list every town that includes an island off its shore.

[Pete from Boston]

The most interesting example I know of this is Houvenkopf Mountain, predominantly in Mahwah, New Jersey (also known as "Stag Hill," or to its residents, simply "The Mountain").

This small mountain is inhabited almost exclusively by the Ramapough people, a mixed-race ethnic isolate group whose ancestors are variously described as combinations of Dutch, Hessian, Black slave, and Lenape Indian (their names are predominantly Dutch, and the now-essentially-extinct Jersey Dutch was spoken among them into the 20th century).  Not surprisingly, the local white population has always treated them with something between fear and contempt. 

Until the 1970s, the only access roads up the mountain were one through Hillburn, New York, and the sometimes-passable steep switchback of Geiger Road in Mahwah.  Geiger Road apparently had some incidents with school bus and/or fire trucks struggling and failing to negotiate it, forcing them to go through Hillburn, which eventually stopped allowing these out-of-town/state services to rely on its road, which it finally closed altogether.

Finally, amid a lot of citizen objection (see: fear and contempt, above) Mahwah was forced to build Stag Hill Road up the mountain from NJ 17.  Good thing, too, because the lower half of Geiger Road was obliterated when this part of Route 17 was expanded to accomodate the I-287 overlap in the early 1990s.

[jwolfer]

We had state orphans once on this site, now what about Municipal Orphans where one part of town is severed from the rest of the community by a waterway or poor road system.

Berkley Township, Ocean County, NJ has land on both sides of Barnagate Bay that are not connected by bridge.  In fact police and school buses must cut through both Toms River, Seaside Heights, and Seaside Park to reach the area located on the barrier island between the US mainland and the Atlantic Ocean making this part of the township miles away from its mother so to speak.

Clark, NJ has a neighborhood that is severed from the rest of Clark do to not being connected to the rest of the Township's road and street network as one must enter Woodbridge Township, Middlesex County to reach these streets not connected.  Not only is Holland Drive and Hayes and Rahway Avenues and even State Street orphaned from the rest of Clark, but from the county as well as Clark is located in Union thus making this neighborhood not even connected to the rest of Union either.

Any other such instances where municipal roadways and/or neighborhoods are orphaned from the rest of its community?

Brick Township and Toms River Township are similar. Brick beaches cannot be reached without going through Mantoloking borough. TR has Ortley Beach and Ocean Beach that can not be reached without going through Seaside Heights  and Lavallete. Seaside heights and seaside park use Central Regional high school so for many there is not an issue. Lavallette and Mantoloking use Point Pleasant Beach high school different than surrounding township

Every now and then there is people who want to have the barrier island portion join one of the boroughs. It would make sense to me. But the townships do not want to loose the high value beach front properties with very few children to put in school

Island beach ( now a state park) was at one time a borough created from Berkeley and Lacey Townships.. But it was reabsorbed by Berkeley township because there were no residents

New jersey is unique in this kind of problem. Pennsylvania might have something similar. But in most states cities would just annex surrounding unincorporated area. NJ has no unincorporated areas

[hotdogPi]

All state orphans are also municipal orphans.

[Brandon]

All state orphans are also municipal orphans.

Not necessarily.  They may be unincorporated.

[NJRoadfan]

I recall reading in the Star-Ledger many years ago that at least one groups of people in an orphaned/cut off neighborhood here in NJ wanted to secede and join the neighboring town they had to drive through anyway. I think it involved Mt. Olive Township, but I can't seem to find anything online about it.

[Roadrunner75]

A couple of years ago homeowners on a street in Toms River on the barrier island were successfully able to get their street annexed by neighboring Lavallette.

[jwolfer]

A couple of years ago homeowners on a street in Toms River on the barrier island were successfully able to get their street annexed by neighboring Lavallette.

If I remember correctly this street was part of lavallette's street grid and has lavallette address.  West point island left Toms River(then Dover)Township to join lavallette in the 1970s

[cpzilliacus]

Then there's the matter of the extreme south(eastern) tip of Jefferson County, W.Va. 

The only road access to the homes there is via Virginia Route 601, Raven Rocks Road in Loudoun County (Raven Rocks Road dips into West Virginia for a very short distance as West Virginia County Route 35, but I think it is probably maintained by VDOT).

Google Maps of the area here.

[clong]

Vestavia Hills, AL has 2 relatively large but separated areas. Vestavia proper (as it is referred to) - generally 35216 zip code has been around for 40-50 years. In the mid to late 90s, the Liberty Park section - in zip code 35242, along Liberty Parkway was annexed thru I believe the first non-contiguous annexation in Alabama history which required a statewide vote on an amendment to the Alabama Constitution. In the early 2000's, Vestavia annexed Cahaba Heights - a previously unincorporated area that bordered Liberty Park, but was still separated from Vestavia proper.

Hoover, AL is contiguous but has a very interesting shape due to efforts to expand from a general area near the I-65/I-459 interchange to Greystone Golf Club and the homes surrounding it. Worth a Google look for sure.

Birmingham, AL also has a strange shape due to efforts to annex water sources and commercial areas but is also contiguous.

[1995hoo]

Then there's the matter of the extreme south(eastern) tip of Jefferson County, W.Va. 

The only road access to the homes there is via Virginia Route 601, Raven Rocks Road in Loudoun County (Raven Rocks Road dips into West Virginia for a very short distance as West Virginia County Route 35, but I think it is probably maintained by VDOT).

Google Maps of the area here.

I seem to recall a Washington Post article about that area and the difficulties its location causes with things like emergency response. 911 calls to West Virginia didn't get sufficient response because the responders would hit the Virginia state line and turn back so as not to go out of their jurisdiction. I have no idea whatever came of that (seems it'd be reasonable to make a deal like Hyder has with British Columbia for certain services).