Unannexed from the city?

Has anyone ever succeeded in being unannexed from a city? If so, please tell me how you did it!!

My situation is I own land that was annexed into the city when the water lines to this area went bad, and it turned out the builder had not told the city he was hooking into their lines. In order to get their water fixed, 3 properties in the area accepted annexation. The neighbors on each side did not and are still county. My fence line is the city limit. I want out.

If you have done this, please tell me how you did it :D  

Well, I do know it's a lot easier / more common to get annexed than vice-versa.
It might help if you shared the country & city you're working with - a lot of users here aren't from the USA and you didn't give any details.
So Im going to assume you're in the USA

In Washington State, either a petition must be submitted to the city signed by the requisite number of voters or the city council must pass a resolution calling for an election, followed by a city-wide election in which a super-majority of city voters must approve the de-annexation. If there’s a boundary review board in the county, the proposed de-annexation is subject to potential review by that board.

The process of getting a petition on the ballet involves calling for a vote, and I’m not sure why a city council would want to pass a resolution to have an election on whether to de-annex a single person's property, as elections cost money and the city would foot the bill for a de-annexation election.

De-annexing affects the city's electoral voting rights negatively in US elections, so it's super rare for it to succeed.
Cities need to be able to count on stable boundaries.  The de-annexation process, with its high hurdle, helps to keep them stable.

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My biggest question is: Why is it a problem?
Why do you 'want out'?
When was your property annexed - before you lived there, or during your life there?

Hi Pearl,

Assuming this is a small town, I would begin by having a sane conversation with the mayor.  I would use the approach of asking for his/her help.

Is the city growing or is it shrinking? Sometimes if a city is shrinking annexing is a way to get more tax revenue. In Kansas some cities do a forced annexation but that also means that the city would need to get utilities to the people in I think six months. If it is a unforced annexation the city can take there time. This may be different in other areas and may have change since I heard about annexation years ago. If it was me I would talk to the city and get more information about the annexing. There may be a letter that explains the annexing.  Good luck!

It's not being annexed, it was at least 10 years ago. (Not sure exactly when)
Town is very small, under 5000 people, and my neighbors are all county, not city, I want my place county too.