Southern Valley Fire & Rescue
HORACE, N.D. (KFGO) – Southern Valley Fire & Rescue (SVFR) in Horace has filed a civil lawsuit against the City of Fargo over land and tax revenue.
In a complaint filed in East Central District Court in Cass County, Southern Valley Fire & Rescue says, as the City of Fargo continued to grow south of 52nd Avenue, Fargo annexed land that is within Southern Valley Fire & Rescue’s territory. The rural fire district claims that the Fargo Fire Department expanded its fire protection territory to coincide with the City of Fargo’s expansion, which is an illegal annexation of SVFR’s territory.
SVFR says, currently, the Fargo Fire Department’s territory overlaps with their territory for fire protection services.
“The City of Fargo and Fargo FD have been aware for decades that Fargo FD’s territory did not automatically expand when the City annexed more territory into its city limits,” SVFR says in the complaint.
SVFR goes on to say that the Cass County auditor is responsible for allocating the tax collected in SVFR’s territory. If any territory is To be annexed or removed from a rural fire protection district, North Dakota law states that petitions must be filed with the Cass County auditor.
SVFR says petitions were never filed to withdraw territory from their fire protection district, so they didn’t get the opportunity to object to the Fargo Fire Department’s annexation of their territory and the Cass County Commission never held a public hearing.
“Despite no proper annexation, the Cass County auditor diverted taxes collected on property located within the territory of SVFR and paid the tax to the City of Fargo and Fargo FD,” the lawsuit states.
SVFR says, although their territory has remained legally unchanged, the county auditor has collected taxes from SVFR’s territory and paid those taxes to Fargo. SVFR claims the county auditor has redirected millions of dollars in property tax income and revenue away from SVFR and toward Fargo and the Fargo Fire Department.
The Fargo Fire Department opened Fire Station 8 in October 2024, which SVFR says is within their territory. The rural fire district says the new fire station cost an estimated $5.4 million and was paid for with taxable income and revenue that Fargo acquired due to its illegal annexation of SVFR territory.
Since 2018, SVFR estimates a loss of at least $6,259,129 in tax revenue and $722,426 in lost fee revenue for a total loss of at least $6,986,555.
Southern Valley Fire & Rescue is seeking an order from the court for Fargo to return all illegally annexed property and tax revenue from that property.
The City of Fargo has this response to the lawsuit:
“The City of Fargo is aware that Southern Valley Fire & Rescue has commenced a lawsuit against the City and Cass County. The North Dakota Insurance Reserve Fund for whom the City has coverage for such actions, has retained the law firm of Pearson and Christensen to represent the City as well as Cass County. The City rejects the claims being made by Southern Valley Fire & Rescue and intends to vigorously defend the claims that have been lodged.”
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