Slaughter, J.
In this municipal-annexation case, we hold that a trial court hearing a remonstrance proceeding on judicial review must consider the evidence submitted by both the municipality and the remonstrators. The trial court need not defer to either the municipality’s own evidence supporting the annexation or its determination that it met the statutory requirements. Whether the annexation was lawful is a legal question for the trial court. If the court enters special findings of fact and conclusions of law, appellate courts are to apply the standard of review provided in Trial Rule 52. We provide guidance for applying the undefined statutory terms “subdivided” and “reasonably near future” and, on this record, affirm the trial court’s judgment for the Remonstrators and against the Town of Brownsburg.
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If those objecting to the annexation satisfy the remonstrance procedures, a court must determine whether the municipality satisfied the statutory requirements for annexation. The trial court sits as finder of fact and, after receiving evidence and hearing argument, assesses whether the legal requirements were met. The court does not weigh competing views about the wisdom or desirability of the proposed annexation. Instead, it plays a “limited role” in annexations and must afford “substantial deference” to the municipality’s legislative judgment—i.e., to its policy choice to annex the disputed territory. Id. (citation omitted). The court’s role, however, is not to “sustain blindly” an exercise of such judgment, but to ensure that the municipality did “not exceed[] its authority”, and that the “statutory conditions for annexation [were] satisfied.” Id. (quoting Chidester v. City of Hobart, 631 N.E.2d 908, 910 (Ind. 1994)). Stated differently, whether and what to annex are policy choices for the municipality; w whether the annexation was lawful is a legal question for the courts.
Neither the governing annexation statute nor separation-of-powers principles compel a different result, despite the Town’s contrary argument. In its transfer petition, the Town argues that the “substantial deference” courts owe municipalities’ policy choices also applies to legal questions: “If substantial deference is to mean anything, it has to mean that a municipality’s reasoned and factually informed understanding of the statutory criteria and the evidence supporting that [sic] criteria must be given priority over the remonstrator’s and the trial court’s contrary conclusions.” What the Town seeks, in effect, is an interpretation that renders the Remonstrators’ evidence superfluous—i.e., either the Town provided enough evidence to satisfy the statutory criteria, or it did not, but nothing the Remonstrators might put forward could contradict the sufficiency of the Town’s evidence.
The statute nowhere supports giving municipalities a “blank check” with its annexation decisions. To the contrary, by its terms the statute requires courts to enter judgment “according to the evidence that either party”—municipality or remonstrator—“may introduce.” I.C. § 36-4-3- 12(a)(2) (emphasis added). Thus, the statute itself refutes the Town’s argument. A trial court assessing the legality of a disputed annexation must weigh and balance the evidence submitted by both sides and not put its thumb on the scale for either.
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… For good or ill, the legislature now subjects annexations to judicial review to ensure their legality. A trial court does not fulfill that role simply by taking a municipality’s word for it. What the court must follow is the legislature’s requirement that municipalities meet certain criteria before annexation can proceed, not a municipality’s claim that the statutory criteria are satisfied on a given evidentiary record. Just as there was no separation-of-powers violation when the legislature gave courts no role in annexation decisions, neither does the legislature violate separation of powers today in charging courts to ensure municipalities meet the statute’s requirements. Thus, the judicial role is to decide whether the municipality has met the statutory requirements or flouted them. Fortville, 51 N.E.3d at 1197-98. Courts may do no more; but we must do that much.
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Conclusion
For these reasons, we affirm the trial court’s judgment that the Town did not satisfy its burden of proving it had met the statutory requirements for annexing the disputed territory.
Rush, C.J., and David, Massa, and Goff, JJ., concur.