Austin brazenly annexes rural townships

As rural residents we are very concerned with the recent actions of the city of Austin.For decades, Lansing Township has been steadily annexed into the city of Austin bit by bit. More than 2,000 acres to date, despite the city experiencing a steady loss of businesses and population over those same years.Our township is a farming community; we have spent many years and resources maintaining these attributes. We need farms to stay farms. Austin has on at least two separate occasions in recent years annexed parcels of Austin Township and Lansing Township farmland under the pretense of some development interest; only to later discover no development is forthcoming.Now, once again and despite twice being denied by the township supervisors the city officials are at it again. In a brazen attempt to subvert the political will of the rural area they are proceeding, with hostility to the residents, to annex raw farmland into the city without consent.This has many ramifications for Lansing Township and impacts surrounding farms negatively, as the potential for conflict rises with each incursion into the countryside. Austin has seen business contraction and a steady loss of residential structures, creating vast amounts of empty commercial space and dozens of empty lots in the city. Prior annexations have proven to be excessively costly for property owners.