GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2005
SESSION LAW 2005-69
HOUSE BILL 236
AN ACT to limit the automatic grant of exclusive jurisdiction over lands acquired by the federal government.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1. G.S. 104-7 reads as rewritten:
"§
104-7. Acquisition of lands by the United States for public
buildings; customhouses, courthouses, post offices, forts, arsenals, or
armories; cession of jurisdiction; exemption from taxation.
(a) The consent of
the State is hereby given, in accordance with the seventeenth clause, eighth
section, of the first article of the Constitution of the United States, to the
acquisition by the United States, by purchase, condemnation, or otherwise, of
any land in the State required for the sites State that either is:
(1) Required for
customhouses, courthouses, post offices, forts, arsenals, or
armories; provided that the total land to be acquired for a particular facility
does not exceed 25 acres; or other public buildings whatever, or for any
other purposes of the government.
(2) To be added to Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Camp Lejeune, New River Marine Corps Air Station, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station, Military Ocean Terminal at Sunny Point, or the United States Coast Guard Air Station at Elizabeth City. Any of the land to be added to a military base named in this subdivision shall be contiguous to and within a 25-mile radius of the military base for which the property is acquired.
(b) Exclusive
jurisdiction in and over any land so acquired by the United States shall
be and the same with the consent of the State under subsection (a) of
this section is hereby ceded to the United States for all purposes for
which the United States requests cession of jurisdiction except that
jurisdiction in and over these lands with respect to: (i) the service upon
such sites of all civil and criminal process of the courts of this State;
State, (ii) the concurrent power to enforce the criminal law, (iii) the
power to enforce State laws for the protection of public health and the
environment and for the conservation of natural resources, and (iv) the entire
legislative jurisdiction of the State with respect to marriage, divorce, annulment,
adoption, commitment of the mentally incompetent, and descent and distribution
of property is reserved to the State. but the Cession of jurisdiction
so ceded shall continue no longer than only so long as the
said United States shall own such lands. owns the land.
(c) The
jurisdiction ceded shall not vest until the United States shall havehas
acquired title to said lands the land by purchase, condemnation,
or otherwise.otherwise; accepted the cession of jurisdiction in
writing; and filed a certified copy of the acceptance in the office of the
register of deeds in the county or counties in which the land is located. The
acceptance of jurisdiction shall be made by an authorized official of the
United States and shall include a precise description of the land involved and
a statement of the extent to which cession of jurisdiction is accepted. The
register of deeds shall record the acceptance of jurisdiction and index it in
both the grantor and the grantee index under the name of the United States and,
if title to the land over which jurisdiction is ceded is vested in any entity
other than the United States, then the register of deeds shall also index the
acceptance of jurisdiction in both the grantor and the grantee index under the
name of that entity.
(d) So long as the
said lands shall remain land acquired with the consent of the State
under subsection (a) of this section remains the property of the United States
when acquired as aforesaid, and no longer, the same shall be and continue States,
and no longer, the land shall be exempt and exonerated from all State,
county, and municipal taxation, assessment, or other charges which that
may be levied or imposed under the authority of this State.
(e) Persons residing on lands in the State for which any jurisdiction has been ceded under this section shall not be deprived of any civil or political rights, including the right of suffrage, by reason of the cession of jurisdiction to the United States."
SECTION 2. This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 19th day of May, 2005.
s/ Beverly E. Perdue
President of the Senate
s/ James B. Black
Speaker of the House of Representatives
s/ Michael F. Easley
Governor
Approved 4:15 p.m. this 27th day of May, 2005