Municipalities with unusual boundaries

[kurumi]

Stamford, TX is a small town north of Abilene.

Its 13 square miles are basically: ~5 square miles around US 277 and TX 6, the main roads through town; 7 square miles on Lake Stamford; and a narrow strip, about 10 miles long and less than 1000 feet wide, connecting them.

Link showing the border: https://maps.app.goo.gl/rkCyV8GbQWR1ZZV26

[J N Winkler]

Stamford, TX is a small town north of Abilene.

Its 13 square miles are basically: ~5 square miles around US 277 and TX 6, the main roads through town; 7 square miles on Lake Stamford; and a narrow strip, about 10 miles long and less than 1000 feet wide, connecting them.

Link showing the border: https://maps.app.goo.gl/rkCyV8GbQWR1ZZV26

Looking at the map extract, it seems the city also has exclaves consisting of discrete strips of lakeshore as well as both abutments of the FM 600 bridge across the lake.  I wonder about the history here--I have never heard of Texas being a poster child for strip annexation, unlike Arizona and Oklahoma.

[Scott5114]

I have never heard of Texas being a poster child for strip annexation, unlike Arizona and Oklahoma.

The city limits of Duncan, Oklahoma defy description.

[Road Hog]

Stamford, TX is a small town north of Abilene.

Its 13 square miles are basically: ~5 square miles around US 277 and TX 6, the main roads through town; 7 square miles on Lake Stamford; and a narrow strip, about 10 miles long and less than 1000 feet wide, connecting them.

Link showing the border: https://maps.app.goo.gl/rkCyV8GbQWR1ZZV26

Looking at the map extract, it seems the city also has exclaves consisting of discrete strips of lakeshore as well as both abutments of the FM 600 bridge across the lake.  I wonder about the history here--I have never heard of Texas being a poster child for strip annexation, unlike Arizona and Oklahoma.

Lots of Texas cities like to annex highway ROWs, mainly to enhance the city coffers with citation revenue.

[1995hoo]

Baarle-Hertog:

[kalvado]

Baarle-Hertog:

India-Bangladesh border used to be a huge mess. And actually enforced one.
Things were significantly cleaned up in 2015 or so.

[hotdogPi]

Marion, Illinois



By DemocraticLuntz at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63582364

[bing101]

City of San Diego has two parts.

[newyooper]

I have never heard of Texas being a poster child for strip annexation, unlike Arizona and Oklahoma.

The city limits of Duncan, Oklahoma defy description.

A number of these "strange" annexations have to do with utilities.  It may be illegal to have a home and septic system too close to the lake due to evolving national and/or state laws in wetlands, for example.  However, since the town may have a waste water treatment facility, they annex the area around the lake and hook the homes up to "city" sewer.  Similar, two neighboring towns may unify under the name of one town because one has an existing and up to date water treatment facility, while the other has an aging one that may require a multi-million dollar replacement in the near future.

[mgk920]

Stamford, TX is a small town north of Abilene.

Its 13 square miles are basically: ~5 square miles around US 277 and TX 6, the main roads through town; 7 square miles on Lake Stamford; and a narrow strip, about 10 miles long and less than 1000 feet wide, connecting them.

Link showing the border: https://maps.app.goo.gl/rkCyV8GbQWR1ZZV26

Looking at the map extract, it seems the city also has exclaves consisting of discrete strips of lakeshore as well as both abutments of the FM 600 bridge across the lake.  I wonder about the history here--I have never heard of Texas being a poster child for strip annexation, unlike Arizona and Oklahoma.

Lots of Texas cities like to annex highway ROWs, mainly to enhance the city coffers with citation revenue.

In states like Oklahoma, many munis like to annex a bunch of public roads in their vicinities to sort of 'stake a claim' on the areas that those roads surround, preserving them as future growth areas for those munis while keeping other munis out.


BTW, one of my favorite city limit lines is that of Springfield, IL.  Internationally, Moscow (as in 'Russia') has an interesting border.


Mike

[SectorZ]

This is where I will again stress the superiority of New England and other northeast states in this respect. Even northern Maine has nothing and still has more sanity than any of these wacky city borders. Massachusetts just has a county with two exclaves (one by design, one due to Boston gobbling up various towns during the 1800's).

My state may have invented gerrymandering, but the spirit lives on in these city borders.

[wxfree]

Stamford, TX is a small town north of Abilene.

Its 13 square miles are basically: ~5 square miles around US 277 and TX 6, the main roads through town; 7 square miles on Lake Stamford; and a narrow strip, about 10 miles long and less than 1000 feet wide, connecting them.

Link showing the border: https://maps.app.goo.gl/rkCyV8GbQWR1ZZV26

Looking at the map extract, it seems the city also has exclaves consisting of discrete strips of lakeshore as well as both abutments of the FM 600 bridge across the lake.  I wonder about the history here--I have never heard of Texas being a poster child for strip annexation, unlike Arizona and Oklahoma.

That map doesn't show the boundary properly because of the water in the lake. If you look at the Wikipedia page, it shows the entire area of the city, which includes the lake.  The thin strip linking the two is a water line.  The city owns the lake, so annexing it doesn't have any tax or services implications, and allows the city to enforce ordinances there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamford,_Texas

This shows a problem with maps that I wish someone would fix.  Almost all maps attach boundaries to the ground and then assume you can't see them through the water. I recently saw a map of Michigan in a way I never had before (and I've seen a lot of maps).  It showed the area highlighted, the way that Wikipedia map does, but over the whole state, not just the land area.  The Great Lakes are an exception to the rule that water hides boundaries, so I've seen the lines many times, but I'd never seen the whole state treated as a single shape like that.  Something I've still never seen is a map of how far Texas extends into the Gulf of Mexico.  I don't even know a description of what the rules are.  I've seen a legal description of area where the federal government granted title to the state, but that isn't the same thing as territorial jurisdiction.  How much of the Gulf is in Texas?  Is part of it in the United States but not in any state?  I know about national territorial waters, but I know nothing about subnational territories.  Of course the same issues apply in other coastal states, so my questions about maritime Texas are representative.

[bing101]

Fairfield, California there is a strip that looks like it covers a part of I-80 to connect the two sections of the city.



Another city in Solano county, CA but in this case Dixon had its city limits in two separate parts due to some of the farmland being in the jurisdiction of Solano County. 



Los Angeles city proper where there's a strip that covers I-110 from Downtown to San Pedro districts.

[ZLoth]

While the city of Dallas is mostly within Dallas County, portions of the city actually go into nearby Collin, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall County. And, if you look at the city border on the east site, there is a narrow strip that goes east toward man-made Lake Ray Hubbard. In addition, Highland Park and University Park which is slightly north of downtown Dallas are two separate (and very expensive communities) completely surrounded by the City of Dallas.

The City of Richardson actually has a panhandle.

[Bruce]

Everett doesn't even bother with a strip connecting the city to its water supply. And, despite having no people, it is still part of a city council district:

[flan]

Island Park, ID is a good one. ~25 miles end to end, only about ~1000 feet wide for most of its length.

[clong]

3 of my favorites. Vestavia's 2 parts are not connected, separated by a cul-de-sac of Mountain Brook, AL.

Birmingham, AL

Vestavia Hills, AL

Hoover, AL

[mgk920]

While the city of Dallas is mostly within Dallas County, portions of the city actually go into nearby Collin, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall County. And, if you look at the city border on the east site, there is a narrow strip that goes east toward man-made Lake Ray Hubbard. In addition, Highland Park and University Park which is slightly north of downtown Dallas are two separate (and very expensive communities) completely surrounded by the City of Dallas.

The City of Richardson actually has a panhandle.

That is just like he Cities of Hamtramck and Highland Park, MI, two smallish century old suburbs that are contiguous to each other and completely surrounded by the City of Detroit.

Mike

[epzik8]

Fairfield, California there is a strip that looks like it covers a part of I-80 to connect the two sections of the city.



Another city in Solano county, CA but in this case Dixon had its city limits in two separate parts due to some of the farmland being in the jurisdiction of SOlano County. 



Los Angeles city proper where there's a strip that covers I-110 from Downtown to San Pedro districts.

L.A. has always been a favorite example of mine of this.

[NJRoadfan]

This is where I will again stress the superiority of New England and other northeast states in this respect. Even northern Maine has nothing and still has more sanity than any of these wacky city borders. Massachusetts just has a county with two exclaves (one by design, one due to Boston gobbling up various towns during the 1800's).

My state may have invented gerrymandering, but the spirit lives on in these city borders.

The Boro of South Hackensack, New Jersey would like a word with you (its three disjointed pieces). We also have "donut hole" towns completely surrounded by another town. One of them is Sussex Boro, which is shaped like an octagon.

[bandit957]

Another interesting type of boundary is one that runs right through the middle of an urban neighborhood. For example, O'Fallon Avenue marks the boundary between Bellevue and Dayton but looks like a regular city street. This means people are in a different city from their neighbors across the street.

This is where a woman blew a bubble with bubble gum in two cities at the same time by walking across the street.

[Road Hog]

A Texas fact of life is a location where you not only live in different municipalities but you also have different zip codes, different landline phone numbers and different school districts. Such is the case of Eastern Denton County.

[ZLoth]

A Texas fact of life is a location where you not only live in different municipalities but you also have different zip codes, different landline phone numbers and different school districts. Such is the case of Eastern Denton County.

Yup. The eastern half of the DFW area (including Dallas) has the area codes of 214 (1947), 972 (1996), 469 (1999), and 945 (2021, not in active use), while the western half of the DFW area (including Fort Worth) has the area codes of 817 (1953) and 682 (2000), while the part north of Fort Worth (including Denton) was split off into 940 around 1997. East of DFW, we have area codes 903 (1990, and originally a Mexico area code until 1980) and 430 (2003)

Meanwhile, the Houston area, meanwhile, has 713 (1947), 281 (1996), 832 (1999), 346 (2014) and upcoming 621 (2025).

It should be noted that, in 1947, Texas originally had four area codes: 214 (Northeast including DFW), 713 (Southeast including Houston), 512 (South), and 915 (Western and Northwestern Texas).

[SectorZ]

This is where I will again stress the superiority of New England and other northeast states in this respect. Even northern Maine has nothing and still has more sanity than any of these wacky city borders. Massachusetts just has a county with two exclaves (one by design, one due to Boston gobbling up various towns during the 1800's).

My state may have invented gerrymandering, but the spirit lives on in these city borders.

The Boro of South Hackensack, New Jersey would like a word with you (its three disjointed pieces). We also have "donut hole" towns completely surrounded by another town. One of them is Sussex Boro, which is shaped like an octagon.

New England and other northeast states didn't include NJ.

[GaryV]

Another interesting type of boundary is one that runs right through the middle of an urban neighborhood

There must be hundreds of these in Metro Detroit. One side of the street is one city/township, the other side is another. And sometimes they have different address systems, so one side's numbers don't line up with the other side at all.