Given we’ve shared that a general improvement district’s (“GID’s”) Board of Trustees’ (“Board’s”) power to “fix, and from time to time increase or decrease…rates, tolls or charges other than special assessments” flows from NRS 318.197(1), and that this NRS instructs those exactments may “includ(e)…annexation charges,” here we examine “annexation charges,” and whether they legitimately pay the costs the District incurs to furnish recreation services or facilities. Given NRS 318.197 expressly uses the words “annexation charge,” and NRS 318.261 addresses the annexation of territory to a district, it would appear these charges have something to do with the costs of annexing territory to a GID. In fact, that’s the very definition of an annexation charge. “A fee paid to a city or district when property is annexed (the process of adding land to a municipality’s boundaries) into their jurisdiction.”¹

The Incline Village General Improvement District (“IVGID”) has quite a history with annexation charges. Recall that prior to Art Wood & Co.’s acquisition of the lands from George Whittel which eventually became Incline Village, “The Captain” sold over sixty (60) Lake Tahoe lakefront lots along the former route of State Highway 28² (the current route of Lakeshore Blvd) to various purchasers³. Therefore when what we know today as Incline Village was sold to Eugene Jordan and Arthur Wood on September 24, 1959, the sixty (60) or so lots which had been previously sold by Whittel were not included in the purchase. Over the years Crystal Bay Development Co. constructed public water and sewer disposal systems. And Washoe County insisted these sixty (60) or so lots connect to those systems for public health and sanitation reasons, as well as the surface water treatment requirements of the Federal Environmental Agency’s Safe Drinking Water Act (“SDWA”). And the vehicle for these connections became annexation. As each of these parcels went through the process of annexation, their owner(s) were charged an “annexation fee”⁴ for the privilege. In 1972 that fee was as much as $1,245⁵. And by 1998 it had been reduced to $900⁶.

And now you know!

1. See https://www.lawinsider.com/dictionary/annexation-fee#:~:text=Annexation%20fee%20means%20the%20fee,%2C%20financial%20consultants%2C%20etc.).
2. See https://www.clubtahoe.com/history-of-incline-village/.
3. Most of the buyers were individuals who built lakeside homes.
4. Today NRS 318.263(4)(d) recognizes such a charge and instructs that “any charge imposed must be computed in a manner that does not impose a new charge on the members of the district and must not penalize the members of the territory to be annexed.”
5. See Resolution No. 1063.
6. See Resolution No. 1700.