The year 2024 means Jefferson County's annexation rules will be changing. Starting this July, residents living outside Louisville's Urban Core will be able to decide whether they want to form their own city — or join another one — regardless of the Louisville Metro Council's opinion.

This power was given to residents through a bill that passed at the end of the 2022 Kentucky legislative session. That law, passed as House Bill 314, allows new annexations or new cities with at least 6,000 residents within Louisville Metro, but outside the Urban Service District, to occur if 66.6% of voters in the qualified area sign a petition...

If neighborhoods choose to annex, it does not mean they are leaving Louisville Metro. Annexed neighborhoods would still pay taxes to Louisville, and to whatever home-rule city they are a part of, said Councilman Kevin Kramer.

However, Louisville would lose insurance premium tax revenue from those residents. It could also lose state money for roads, which would instead be given to the individual home-rule cities. And under U.S. Census rules, Louisville Metro can't count the residents living in incorporated cities within Jefferson County as part of its overall population. Read more.

The Silver Oaks neighborhood, located in District 20 and represented by Councilman Stuart Benson, filed a petition to annex into Jeffersontown in December 2022.