With annexation request back on, Dayton threatens legal action

Dayton pleads with Lafayette to say no to renewed annexation request along Haggerty Lane, near the small town. Mayor says he’ll support annexation

• Thanks to sponsor Stuart & Branigin for support to help make this edition of the Based in Lafayette reporting project possible.

---

Dayton town officials were in heavy lobbying mode late this week, pleading with Lafayette City Council members to reject a renewed request from the owners of 132 acres along Haggerty Lane to annex the industrially zoned land into the city.

The request, going to the city council Monday, is the second time this year the Carr Family Farm LLC has come to Lafayette, asking the city to bring the property into the city to make utilities available to prep the ground for development. That’s something Guthrie Carr, representing the family, has said town council members in neighboring Dayton have refused to do in the past without stipulations for what can and can’t go on the property.

Dayton officials, who started their own involuntary annexation plans for the property in March, maintain that the ground just east of Interstate 65 has long been considered part of their town of 1,500, not the next step in Lafayette’s expansion.

(Photo: Dave Bangert)

“I am working off the premise that the city of Lafayette and the council members are going to do the right thing,” Jen Manago, Dayton Town Council president, said Friday. “Just because he’s asked does not mean they have to say yes. … This property just means so much more to Dayton than it ever will mean to Lafayette if they get it.”