County residents fight city annexation

By By Eric Klamut
Rocky Mount Telegram

Thursday, December 04, 2008

On a quiet Tuesday afternoon on Carriage Farm Road, neighbors walk the roads in front of well-manicured front yards.

One man stops to wave to a passing car and smiles at the driver. Maybe he knows the driver, maybe not. The gesture seems made out of courtesy and friendliness more than anything else.

This picturesque neighborhood seems an unlikely place for controversy. But there’s a battle being waged here.

Signs posted on the front lawns of the majority of houses tell it all in one abbreviated sentence – “Stop City Annex.”

For months, Nash County residents who live just outside the Rocky Mount city limits have shown opposition to the city’s second phase of its two-part annexation plan and are fighting Rocky Mount leaders to stop the proposed plan.

Residents have banded together to form the Oak Level Community Against Forced Annexation – a community organization that has been circulating petitions, making phone calls to state legislators and members of the Rocky Mount City Council, in addition to denouncing the city’s wish to expand its boundaries further into Nash County.

“I’m a country girl,” said Kathy Warren, 49, a resident of Old Carriage Farm Road. “We are rural people back here. This is going to influence our quality of life.”

Expanding boundaries

In years past, Rocky Mount traditionally has conducted a large-scale annexation about once every decade, according to city leaders.

The premise behind a municipality annexing outlying areas, in short, under North Carolina statutes is to bring services to residents outside of the city limits and to ensure growth of the municipality in population and property.

This year’s annexation has been in the works since 2005. On June 30, the first of the two-part annexation plan took effect, annexing 2,500 residents and 3,722 acres of property in both Nash and Edgecombe counties.

That annexation also brought an estimated $93 million in added tax base to Rocky Mount.

The second part of the annexation encompasses five areas in the Twin Counties. The city is proposing to involuntarily annex more than 2,200 people and 1,733 acres of land in both Nash and Edgecombe counties.

Of the more than 1,700 acres to be annexed in both counties by the city, more than 1,380 acres are part of the area in Nash County that is home to the Oak Level community.

If approved by the City Council – city leaders will vote on an annexation ordinance Dec. 18 – Rocky Mount would gain an additional $93 million from the second phase of the plan.

The annexation then would become effective Dec. 31, 2009, if approved by the City Council.

Assistant City Manager Peter Varney, the Rocky Mount city official who has been presenting information to residents regarding the proposed annexation, said when the city proposes to annex land, tensions run high.

However, this was not always the case.

“None of the people in any of the proposed annexation areas have asked for annexation,” Varney said. “In the past, areas did want to be annexed for services. People that are proposed to be annexed today live in subdivisions. It’s different today than it was 20 and 30 years ago.”

By annexing outlying areas that are not located in another incorporated municipality, Varney said, municipalities gain economic growth and expand financial responsibilities to provide more infrastructure.

“Cities provide the infrastructure for a healthy local economy,” he said.

The bones of that infrastructure include street maintenance, water, sewer and street lighting. All of these services are in addition to police and fire protection that will be provided to residents if the annexation is approved.

“One municipality can provide all of these services much more economically,” Varney said.

Ann Wall, director of Rocky Mount’s Planning Department, said throughout North Carolina, annexation has been cited as a key factor in growing many of the state’s most populated cities.

“North Carolina has some of the healthiest cities because of the annexation rules we have,” Wall said.

Varney said the two-part involuntary annexation plan was one that was given a considerable amount of time and analysis prior to this year.

“It’s not something we’ve just thought up,” Varney said, adding the current annexation plan is the first involuntary annexation the city has undertaken since the mid-1990s. “It’s something we’ve been working on for some time.”

If the annexation is approved, residents incorporated into Rocky Mount will pay a property tax rate of 58 cents per $100 valuation of property, $8.50 a month for solid waste collection, $3.75 a month for stormwater fees and $1.75 a month for recycling fees.

According to estimates from the city, a resident coming into the city with a home valued at $150,000 can expect to pay $870 in property tax, $102 for garbage collection, $21 for recycling, $45 for stormwater fees, $5 per vehicle for the city’s vehicle tax and $10 for a dog tax on a yearly basis.

Coming together to remain separate

Kathy Warren, a Nash County resident who lives off Old Carriage Farm Road in the Carriage Farms subdivision, said she and her husband, Tom, have worked hard for their home.

The Warrens built a modest 1,300-square-foot home on the outskirts of Rocky Mount seven years ago. The idea was to live a quiet, peaceful life in the country but still be close to relatives who live in the Rocky Mount area.

“We scraped every penny to buy our small home,” Warren said. “We knew that we couldn’t afford to live in the city then.”

When she and her neighbors received letters from Rocky Mount in September notifying them of the proposed annexation plan, Warren said the already tight-knit community mobilized and created the Oak Level Community Against Forced Annexation.

“I am just amazed with my community,” Warren said. “My heart just bursts with pride at this community.”

Through a simple Web site, signs opposing the annexation and making a presence known at City Council meetings and public meetings held by the city on the annexation plan, the organization has been a vocal force in recent months.

“We were all close-knit,” Warren said. “But once we got the letters, it was a matter of days, and we banded together. We were all working together – black, white, Asian and Hispanic. We’re all in this together.

“If nothing else good comes out of this, I know I’m blessed to be part of a community like this.”

At recent Rocky Mount City Council meetings, Oak Level community members have been showing up in large numbers. The residents also distributed packets of petitions signed by more than 900 residents who are in opposition of becoming part of Rocky Mount to city leaders.

Residents also have been requesting that the N.C. General Assembly impose a statewide moratorium on annexations so that legislators can revisit the state’s annexation laws that some call outdated.

Drawn up in 1959, the statute allows a municipality to annex outlying areas based on the idea of rural areas becoming urbanized in order to foster growth and development.

However, residents like Warren said the law is not applicable in 2008.

“That law passed in 1959 when North Carolina was a very rural state,” she said. “Things have greatly changed since 1959. The problem is that municipality and municipality across North Carolina have been absorbing areas like ours for revenue.”

Legislators such as N.C. Sen. A.B. Swindell, D-Nash, have supported imposing a moratorium on annexations statewide to study whether the law should be changed to suit the modern day.

Voicing their concerns

Last week, Rocky Mount officials held a public informational meeting on the annexation at First Baptist Church.

City, police and fire officials gave residents an overview of the services that will be offered to them if the annexation is OK’d by the Rocky Mount City Council in mid-December.

Rocky Mount Fire Chief Keith Harris explained to residents that his department will be ready to respond to emergencies in the annexed areas quickly and efficiently and will work with Nash County and its rural fire departments.

“When the city and county arrives, we will be working together as we’ve trained to do,” Harris said.

Residents also were concerned that the city’s proposal to build an eighth fire station by 2011 off of Sunset Avenue, near the Oak Level Community, would be too little, too late if their residences caught fire before that time.

“A lot of these people are hard-working people, and they’re going to sit there and watch their houses burn,” one man said at the public meeting.

“We have enough people to serve the area we are protecting,” Harris said. “Our staffing is strong. It’s adequate to provide the fire protection needed.”

Harris added that the city has mutual aid agreements with the rural fire departments. These volunteer departments, in addition to Rocky Mount firefighters, will work together in the proposed annexation areas.

“A hurricane, a fire, a flood; they don’t recognize jurisdictional boundaries,” Harris said. “We have long-standing agreements with the county fire departments. We run with them, and they run with us.”

Many residents said they would not feel safe as part of Rocky Mount because of the crime that takes place within the city.

After Rocky Mount Police Chief John Manley opened the floor to questions from the crowd last week, residents quickly responded by asking why Rocky Mount has the highest crime rate in North Carolina.

“Rocky Mount should be having its name changed to 'Crime Town,’” one resident said.

Manley said that though the city has its crime issues, Rocky Mount does not have the state’s highest crime rate.

“We don’t have the number one crime rate,” Manley said. “We are certainly not number one.”

Manley’s comments were met with boos and residents waving “No City Annex” signs.

Another issue focused on Rocky Mount police lacking manpower.

Residents asked Manley why the police department has more than 30 vacancies in the department.

“We have 18 vacancies,” Manley said, adding that the open sworn officer positions will be filled within the next year. “The police department always has carried about a 10-percent vacancy rate.”

Looking ahead

With one week left until the City Council holds a public hearing on the second phase of the city’s annexation plan and less than a month until council members consider an annexation ordinance, neither city officials nor residents can say for sure what the outcome will be.

“It’s been a blessing and a curse at the same time,” Warren said. “I will take away from it the wonderful experiences with my neighbors.”

During the last few months, Warren said, many people have inquired why she is so passionate about keeping her community an independent entity.

“This country was founded on passion and anger,” she said. “I make no apologies. Everybody is against the forced annexation.”

In regards to a possible moratorium by the N.C. General Assembly, Varney said the city is keeping a close eye on the developments, but will continue on its schedule to implement services and infrastructure in the proposed annexation areas to ensure the city will be ready in December 2009 if the City Council members approve the measure.

“It’s a challenging thing to do,” Varney said of the annexation process. “It’s a community issue, and we’ll work through it.”