Dickson, C.J.
This appeal arises from an action by numerous landowners to remonstrate against an attempt by the City of Boonville to annex 1,165 acres of real estate located west of Boonville’s geographic limits. The sole disputed issue in this appeal is whether the statutory prerequisite sixty-five percent (65%) of remonstrating landowners is to be determined by separately counting the multiple parcels acquired by the State for an adjoining public roadway or collectively as one parcel.
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But neither Arnold nor City of Fort Wayne involved land under a public highway, which is at issue in the present case. Further distinguishing the present controversy, in Boonville I, now the law of the case, the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s determination that:
Those parcels extending under a public roadway that forms a boundary to the annexed territory, but that do not otherwise extend into the annexed territory, are not to be counted, either in the total parcels in the annexed territory or as a remonstrating parcel, to determine if the IC 36-4-3-11(a)(1) requirement of participation by 65% of landowners in the annexed territory for remonstrance is met.
Appellee’s App’x at 37. In reaching this decision, the trial judge reasoned that the fee owners of the parcels under the highway had “little or no right to make any use of the public right-of-way, apart from the common right of the public in general to travel over the roadway.” Id. The Court of Appeals agreed: “[W]hile the property owners own the soil underneath these public roadways, they do not own the roadways themselves, which is all that is being annexed.” Boonville I, 950 N.E.2d at 771. The court further declared, “Here, the State—not the adjacent property owners—controls and owns Highway 62….The State alone has control over Highway 62…and for all practical purposes, it has control of the land underneath the roads.” Id. at 772. This emphasizes the reality that the parcels acquired for the construction of a public highway are put to a single use and retain no meaningful separate and independent function. Here, the Court of Appeals in Boonville I previously ruled that the separate parcels were not to be counted except as constituting the public highway. These facts distinguish the present case from the private owners of multiple parcels in Arnold and City of Fort Wayne.
We hold that the land in this case, which comprises the portion of State Road 62 included in the annexed territory, should be considered and counted as a single parcel in determining whether the remonstrating Landowners comprise 65% of the owners of the annexed territory. We therefore reverse the decision of the trial court and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Rucker, David, Massa, and Rush, JJ., concur.