Tonight, Asheville City Councilman Bill Russell made a motion to remove from consideration the current annexations and put a 12-24 month moratorium on any other annexation plans. The motion followed two public hearings of hardship cases They weren’t the normal sob stories in protest of annexation. These people were really a few hundred dollars from going under. Speakers were on fixed incomes, disabled, searching for work but unable to find any. Prices were going up, up, up, up, up.
Some did the math and consulted experts, and calculated they would not be gaining much of anything from the deal. They could not afford to pay double property taxes, and they couldn’t sell their homes since the ones across the street were market analysis comparables without city taxes.
The motion was a little too much for Russell’s School of Government peers who insist annexation is necessary for a healthy city. In order to get traction, he backpedaled until he felt enough support to carry the motion. In the end, council voted 5-2 to release the 1595 residents from Royal Pines from proceeding any further with the annexation. Not as much mercy was shown for Cooper’s Hawk, as the developers had pretty much promised to have the area annexed anyway.
City council is probably still in session, but I left early in order to post before the date changed.
