Can Contiguity and Nonisolation Be Likened to Each Other ?

In Frank v. Village of Barrington Hills, 106 Ill. App. 3d 747, 436 N.E.2d 276, 62 Ill. Dec. 526 (1982), the Court analyzed the prior version of the disconnection statute, which contained a requirement not present in the current statute. At the time Frank was decided, land sought to be disconnected could not be contiguous in whole or in part to any other municipality. Frank, 106 Ill. App. 3d at 755. Although the Village of Barrington Hills argued that disconnection was impermissible because the property was contiguous with the Village of Algonquin, we held that a common boundary one-half the width of a road did not make the property contiguous with the Village of Algonquin. Frank, 106 Ill. App. 3d at 755. In support of its argument, the Village of Barrington Hills pointed out that, in LaSalle National Bank v. Village of Willowbrook, 40 Ill. App. 2d 359, 189 N.E.2d 690 (1963), strips of land 50 feet wide and 33 feet wide were not found to be isolated from a village when another piece of land was disconnected. Frank, 106 Ill. App. 3d at 755-56. Under those facts, we stated in Frank that a determination that the narrow strips were not isolated was not necessarily a determination that a common boundary of those lengths would permit annexations or disconnections at those points. Frank, 106 Ill. App. 3d at 756. However, we also pointed out that there was case law where contiguity and nonisolation were likened to each other. Frank, 106 Ill. App. 3d at 756.