§ 702. Legislative intent. It is the intention of the legislature by
the enactment of this article to provide a municipal annexation law
pursuant to the provisions of the bill of rights for local governments
in subdivision (d) of section one of article nine of the constitution,
which provisions specify basic prerequisites to the annexation of
territory from one local government to another including (1) the consent
of the people, if any, of a territory proposed to be annexed and (2) the
consent of the governing board of each local government, the area of
which is affected, upon the basis of its determination that the
annexation is in the over-all public interest, and which provisions
require the legislature to provide, where such consent of a governing
board is not granted, for adjudication and determination, on the law and
the facts, in a proceeding initiated in the supreme court, of the issue
of whether the annexation is in the over-all public interest.