[Team Cuda]

What about other cases where State legislatures are overriding local iniitiatives? Texas also passed a law preventing Fort Stockton from banning plastic bags. Other states are also passing pre-emption laws overriding local control. Agree or disagree, I believe the issue is local control. While you might like the results in these cases, what happens to the folks in Northern California when LA (whwere most of CAs population is) start passing laws pre-empting local control? Or Eastern Washington (vs Seattle), or inland Oregon (vs Portland)?

You either believe that local control is best or you don’t. Otherwise, we’re back to situational ethics.

[Milton Miteybad]

Local control is generally preferable, except when it would present clear conflict with legal doctrines that are well-settled matters of state law, such as the doctrine of the dominance of the mineral estate in Texas. The City of Denton statute needed to go, period. Creating a situation where mineral owners could not realize value from their holdings just because the City of Denton came out to meet their mineral lands through annexation isn't an appropriate use of local police powers. That measure had the potential to 1) prevent mineral owners from prospering from their holdings, and 2) prevent the City of Denton itself from expanding its tax base.

It was double the stupidity packed into one mind-numbingly lame-brained ordinance, passed by ignorami on the City Council who apparently couldn't see past happy hour at 3 pm. Most cities WANT to expand their tax base. Evidently the City of Denton is an exception to the rule that sentient beings act in their own enlightened self-interest.

If you're looking for someone who worships at the altar of "local control," I'm probably not your guy. While there is much to be said for it, it isn't necessarily the be-all and end-all of good governance, as the dearly departed Denton drilling ordinance amply attests.