94 
it. The legislation could be drafted either separately or as an integral 
part of the new communities proposal. In any case the new com- 
munities proposal should be drafted if not to include, at least to 
anticipate, and perhaps to suggest an annexation statute. Parts of the 
proposed statute for example, should be redrafted to make clear the 
procedure to be followed if annexation were to be part of the develop- 
ment of the new community. 
At the present time, however, no annexation procedure does exist 
in the general laws of the Commonwealth. Desirable as its passage may 
be for purposes of facilitating rational urban growth, obtaining that 
passage would be no easier than obtaining passage of the special law 
currently necessary to achieve any kind of annexation. Because 
annexation thus unavoidably involves a major legislative battle, its 
usefulness an as alternative solution to new community boundary 
problems is not great. 
Consolidation 
The fifth alternative, consolidation, is closely related to annexation 
and, consequently, presents similar legal problems. Its political prob- 
lems are not only similar but more severe. 
Simply defined, consolidation ‘occurs when two or more municipal 
corporations or units of local government are abolished and, in the 
same process, a new municipal corporation is created.” ? As a planning 
matter, consolidation is more advantageous than annexation for new 
community development: it creates an effective compulsory metropoli- 
tan governmental unit, it reduces the coordination problems inherent 
in a multigovernmental unit set-up, and it provides certain economics 
of scale in administration.” 
Unfortunately, all these advantages are offset by the political 
infeasibility of consolidation. Generally, consolidation procedures 
begin with some form of petition in each municipality to be affected 
and require approval by majority vote in each such municipality. That 
difficulty, and the threat to local officials posed by the dissolution of 
the original governmental units, are usually sufficient to render 
consolidation impossible.1% 
The practical result in Massachusetts has been the refusal of the 
legislature even to consider petitions for consolidation. A case in 
point is the 1963 attempt of two municipalities in western Massa- 
chusetts to study a possible consolidation. Not only did the legislature 
give little attention to the bill, but: 
[T]he main opposition to the measure came from cities and towns in the Greater 
Boston Metropolitan Area who believed that the success of a measure of this 
kind might provide a precedent for the merging of communities in their area.!54 
Detachment and separate incorporation 
Given the practical ineffectiveness of the consolidation approach, 
the final alternative for adjusting boundaries to accommodate a 
new community is the detachment of the new community site and 
its incorporation as an independent municipality. Like annexation 
or consolidation, this procedure is possible, unless otherwise consti- 
tutionally impermissible, by special law under section 8(4) of the 
151 Adjusting Municipal Boundaries, supra note 149, at 57. 
182 ACIR: Alternative Approaches, supra note 169, at 65. 
153 Tbid 
154 ‘Adjusting Municipal Boundaries, supra note 149 at 177. 
