Title 14 — Local Government

(a) The county court shall make out and endorse on the petition an order to the effect that the city or incorporated town as named and described in the petition may be organized if the court shall be satisfied after hearing the petition that:(1) The greater of either two hundred …

(a) As soon as the record shall be made and the transcript certified, forwarded, and delivered, the inhabitants within the limits described in the petition shall be deemed a city or incorporated town, to be organized and governed under the provisions of this subtitle in like mann…

(a) One (1) month shall elapse from the time the transcripts are forwarded and delivered before notice shall be given of an election of officers in the city or incorporated town. (b) At any time within the one (1) month, any person interested may make complaint in writing, in the…

(a) It shall be the duty of the court or judge to hear the complaint in a summary manner, receiving answers, affidavits, and proofs, as may be deemed pertinent. (b) If it shall appear to the satisfaction of the court or judge that the proposed city or incorporated town does not c…

(a) Unless the agent of the petitioners, within thirty (30) days after a transcript shall be delivered as provided in § 14-38-104, shall be notified of a complaint having been made to the circuit court of the county, or a judge thereof, then, at the end of the thirty (30) days af…

(a) Every city and incorporated town presently lying in more than one (1) county and presently exercising the rights, privileges, and powers of a municipal corporation, de facto or de jure, and heretofore incorporated or attempted to have been incorporated under any special act o…

A.C.A. § 14-38-112Current through all legislation of the 2025 Regular Session.Arkansas Code of 1987 Annotated Official EditionCopyright © 2026 by the State of Arkansas All rights reserved

A.C.A. § 14-38-113Current through all legislation of the 2025 Regular Session.Arkansas Code of 1987 Annotated Official EditionCopyright © 2026 by the State of Arkansas All rights reserved

The Secretary of State shall receive and preserve in his or her office all papers transmitted to him or her in relation to the organization, incorporation, or annexation of territory to cities and towns.

(a) (1) In addition to the procedures for incorporating a city or town under §§ 14-38-101 — 14-38-108, the inhabitants of a part of any county not embraced within the limits of any city or incorporated town may apply to the county judge of the proper county to call for an electio…

Before an entity undertakes an incorporation or disincorporation proceeding under this chapter, the entity shall coordinate with the Arkansas Geographic Information Systems Office for preparation of legal descriptions and digital mapping for the relevant incorporated or unincorpo…

(a) (1) The county court order of incorporation affecting territory under this chapter shall include the effective date upon which the petition for incorporation is granted and the municipality is considered organized.(2) County court orders that fail to include a specified effec…

(a) The charters, and all the amendments thereto, of all municipal corporations within this state designated as cities of the second class and incorporated towns may be surrendered, all offices held thereunto abolished, and the territory and inhabitants thereof remanded to the go…

(a) (1) The charter of any incorporated town or city of the second class that has been inactive as an incorporated place for five (5) years or longer shall be revoked by order of the county court of the county in which the incorporated town or city of the second class is located.…

(a) (1) When the county court shall have made the order mentioned in § 14-39-102, the charter, and all amendments thereto, of any such municipal corporation shall be deemed to be surrendered and repealed and shall then cease to exist.(2) The population and territory thereof there…

(a) As to all municipal corporations in this state whose charters may be surrendered and repealed under the provisions of this chapter, the Governor shall appoint an officer for the extinct corporations, respectively, to be known as a receiver and back-tax collector. (b) The rece…

(a) As soon as appointed and qualified, the receiver and back-tax collector shall enter upon the duties of his or her office. (b) It shall be the receiver and back-tax collector's duty, and he or she is empowered, to take possession of all books, papers, and documents pertaining …

(a) Every six (6) months the receiver and back-tax collector shall make to the circuit court, in the county in which the extinct corporation was situated, a full, clear, and complete statement showing all taxes collected and settled, and all in his or her hands that remain to be …

The receiver and back-tax collector shall receive such compensation for his or her services as shall be fixed by the county court of the county in which the extinct corporation was situated.

(a) For the purpose of collecting the revenue embraced in the provisions of this chapter, the receiver and back-tax collector is empowered and authorized to file a general creditors' bill in the name of the state, in behalf of all creditors, against all the delinquent taxpayers w…

(a) Publication shall make all creditors parties, with the right to relief as fully as if especially named. At any time, they may file with the clerks of the courts their claims, or attested copies, retaining the original, if they desire. However, the court may order that the ori…

Funds collected under this chapter shall be paid out by the Treasurer of State from time to time to those entitled thereto and in such manner as the circuit court may adjudge and decree, on the warrant of the receiver and back-tax collector, countersigned by the judge of the cour…

(a) The receiver and back-tax collector shall make to the circuit court a full and complete statement of all the private property, if any, belonging to the extinct corporations, respectively. All such property shall be considered by the court as a part of the subject matter of th…

Before an entity undertakes an annexation, consolidation, or detachment proceeding under this chapter, the entity shall coordinate with the Arkansas Geographic Information Systems Office for preparation of legal descriptions and digital mapping for the relevant annexation, consol…

(a) (1) An annexation, consolidation, or detachment action that affects territory under this chapter shall include in its ordinance or resolution the date upon which the annexation, consolidation, or detachment is considered final.(2) An ordinance or resolution that fails to incl…

(a) As used in this section:(1) (A) “Municipal boundary change” means an incorporation, annexation, consolidation, detachment, surrender of charter, revocation of charter, or municipal disincorporation under this subchapter, § 14-38-101 et seq., or § 14-39-101 et seq.(B) “Municip…

(a) (1) (A) Beginning July 1, 1995, when the inhabitants of any city or incorporated town adjoining or contiguous to another smaller municipal corporation of any class in the same county shall desire that the city or incorporated town annex to it or consolidate with it the smalle…

(a) (1) (A) Upon presentation of the petition to the county court by the authorized persons, the court shall at once order and call a special election, to be held in accordance with § 7-11-201 et seq., in both of the municipal corporations on the question of the annexation and th…

(a) At any election held under this subchapter, all qualified electors who are residents of either municipality shall be allowed to vote on the adoption or rejection of the proposed annexation or consolidation and the name of the proposed consolidated municipality. (b) (1) (A) (i…

Any elector shall have the right to test the legality and fairness of the election and the declared results in a proceeding before the circuit court without being required to give bond for costs. However, no such contest shall interfere with the consolidation until finally decide…

(a) As soon as practicable after the annexation, the council of the larger city or incorporated town shall form by ordinance the territory of the smaller municipality into such number of wards as shall seem to be to the best interest of the combined city or incorporated town, or …

(a) The council of the larger city or incorporated town shall cause a plat to be made of the entire city or incorporated town after the annexation thereto and the division into wards of the smaller municipal corporation. (b) (1) A certified copy of the plat shall be filed and rec…

(a) (1) (A) Except as provided under subdivision (a)(1)(B) of this section, the city or town council shall call a special election of council members to be held at such times and places as the council may direct pursuant to a proclamation issued by the mayor in accordance with § …

(a) The term of office of all officers, council members, and employees of the smaller municipality and all laws in force in the smaller municipality shall cease upon and after the consolidation. (b) (1) Any mayor who is forced from office because of a merger of two (2) or more mu…

All public property of the smaller municipality shall belong to the consolidated city or incorporated town.

(a) (1) The debts of each municipality owing prior to or at the time of the consolidation shall be paid by the consolidated municipality by appropriating the revenues derived from year to year from the territory and the inhabitants of what was formerly the larger municipality to …

(a) Creditors of either municipal corporation, on account of obligations made prior to consolidation, shall not be paid sooner or shall not be permitted to enforce the collection of their debts sooner against the consolidated city or incorporated town than the separate municipali…

(a) The wards formed out of the territory comprising the former territory of the smaller municipal corporation annexed under the provisions of this subchapter shall always receive betterments and improvements in an amount equal to the amount of revenue derived by the consolidated…

No franchises, contracts, or other obligations of an extraordinary nature, or other than those necessary for the ordinary and usual running of the affairs of either municipal corporation, which have been granted, made, or created by either municipal corporation after the passage …

(a) Whenever any municipal corporation shall desire to throw any portion of the territory lying within its corporate limits outside of the limits and remit it back to the county in which the municipal corporation is situated, it shall be lawful for the council of the municipal co…

(a) After hearing the petition, if the county court shall be satisfied that a majority of the qualified electors of the corporation are in favor of the exclusion of the territory mentioned in the petition from within its limits, or alternatively that the city council has resolved…

(a) After the record shall have been filed and a copy forwarded to the Secretary of State, the territory shall cease to be a part of the municipal corporation. (b) The limits of cities of the first and second class shall not be reduced to an area less than they were on January 1,…

(a) Whenever it appears that the official corporate limits as shown by the records of the Secretary of State for any city or incorporated town have for more than ten (10) years included an area or territory that has not been recognized by city or incorporated town officials and a…

(a) Upon the filing of the petition, the county court shall set a date for hearing thereon, not less than fifteen (15) days nor more than thirty (30) days after the first publication of notice of the filing of the petition. Notice of the filing shall be published once each week f…

Any public utility serving the area detached shall have the right to continue to serve in the detached area on the same basis as service had been previously rendered prior to the action of the city or incorporated town council in adopting the resolution detaching the territory, e…

It is the purpose of this subchapter to assist landowners to obtain municipal services by making the services reasonably available. However, nothing in this subchapter shall relieve a landowner from the obligation to pay regular fees and costs for connecting to services or from t…

(a) (1) A landowner or group of landowners seeking additional municipal services may have its land detached from the municipality in which it is located and annexed into another municipality that borders the land.(2) However, before annexation is allowed, the municipality in whic…

(a) In no event shall the provisions of this subchapter allow a municipality to be split in half or to have any of its land separately encircled, thereby creating an island of that city within the boundaries of another city. (b) Any detachment and annexation occurring that create…

(a) (1) The circuit courts of the state shall have exclusive jurisdiction to hear all matters related to this subchapter.(2) The circuit court of the county in which the municipalities are located or, in the event that the municipalities are located in different counties or judic…

(a) All documents produced by landowners, municipalities, or others relating to detachment and annexation as enumerated in this subchapter shall be filed with the circuit clerk with copies served upon the municipality and landowners. (b) (1) The circuit clerk shall establish a sy…