By MIKE VOSS and JONATHAN CLAYBORNE

A bill approved this week by the state House would make it more difficult for municipalities to annex outlying neighborhoods.

House Bill 845, titled the Annexation Reform Act of 2011, passed the House by a 107-9 vote Monday.

The measure now moves to the Senate for consideration.

The bill could effectively end forced annexation where it’s opposed in communities across North Carolina.

If approved by the Senate, and signed into law by Gov. Beverly Perdue, the legislation would permit residents of areas slated for annexation to petition their local governments to stop the process.

At least 60 percent of eligible property owners in the targeted location could petition to stall annexation for a minimum of 36 months, the bill reads.

Rep. Bill Cook, R-Beaufort, voted for the reform bill.

“I thought it was a good bill,” Cook said. “It brings some clarity and fairhandedness to the situation. It seems to protect both sides of that question. I think it allows for a situation where folks won’t be unduly, unfairly annexed if they don’t want to be.”

The bill also clarifies steps that need to be taken before towns and cities can complete annexation, he pointed out.

“I think what’s resulted is a very good bill for everybody,” Cook said.

Washington is not pursuing involuntary annexation at this time, said John Rodman, the city’s planning and development director.

“We are taking a kind of wait and see attitude as the General Assembly addresses this issue,” Rodman said.

Rodman said it’s pointless for the city to consider annexation while the Legislature considers annexation reform.

In February 2009, the city adopted a resolution identifying four areas for possible annexation. That resolution expired in February of this year without the city moving forward with annexation.

By increasing the city’s population past the 10,000 person mark, city officials have said, the city becomes eligible for more grants and revenue opportunities not available to municipalities with populations less than 10,000 people.

Chocowinity Mayor Jimmy Mobley said the town is closely following the annexation reform movement in the Legislature.

“We are looking at it two ways. So far, Chocowinity has never had a forced annexation,” Mobley said. “The town is looking at it as a two-way street. It can benefit residents, but we don’t like forced annexation.”

The benefits to newly annexed residents include water, sewer, police and garbage pickup services, Mobley said.

“The town’s policy is if the people don’t want it, we won’t force it,” Mobley said.

The North Carolina League of Municipalities issued a cautious statement on annexation reform.

NCLM describes itself as a nonpartisan network of 522 cities, towns and villages in North Carolina. NCLM lobbies on behalf of those municipalities in the Legislature.

“The North Carolina League of Municipalities stands strongly behind the principles of annexation. Our annexation laws have proven themselves many times over to be beneficial to quality of life in and around our communities, to bring jobs and economic development, and to ensure a sense of fairness in the sharing of services and amenities,” reads the NCLM website. “The League continues to support careful change to the long-standing municipal annexation laws in a way that provides for fair and equitable consideration of all citizens’ needs and concerns and allows cities and towns to grow in an orderly fashion.”
Catherine A. Heath is the director of the Stop NC Annexation Coalition in the Raleigh area.

Heath has been working for annexation reform for about eight years, partly by lobbying the Legislature.

“I think it’s really going to change the conversation between the cities and the areas they’re approaching for annexation,” Heath said of the bill on the table.
“I’m actually quite happy with the bill,” she added. “The ideal would be that they would limit cities to doing voluntary annexation, which is 90 percent of the annexations that they do.”

Hood Richardson, a Beaufort County commissioner, is also a land surveyor and engineer.

Richardson likes House Bill 845, at least the portion that makes provision for petitioning municipalities.

“I think they should put a lot of restraints on them because the thing was wide open in North Carolina for cities to take advantage of individuals,” said Richardson, a Republican. “I support more controls that favor the property owner than the city.”

Richardson acknowledged annexation is necessary for cities’ growth.

“A certain part of it has to be involuntary otherwise the cities can be totally stymied,” he said, soon adding, “What they’ve had up till now has been a wide open right to do it. They needed to have their wings clipped, and they got ’em.”