Davidson County citizens plan to mount a legal fight against the City of Lexington’s annexation plans.
Hanging over it all is the House bill working it way through the legislative process that would place a one-year moratorium on forced annexations. It just so happens that, if the bill passes, the moratorium would end June 30, 2009, which precisely when Lexington’s annexation is scheduled to take place.
Interesting, too, is that Rep. Hugh Holliman is a resdent of the “wealthy Sapona neighborhood” that is targeted for annexation. Holliman said “before that he would not vote if the moratorium bill came up because of a conflict of interest. He has previously said he is in favor of studying the annexation law, originally passed by state legislators in 1959.”
But this brings up an interesting aspect to the legal fight against annexation, which will indeed will continue if change doesn’t occur through the General Assembly (JLF’s Daren Bakst has the odds of that happening). Attorneys for the Pinewild community are fighting annexation by the Village of Pinehurst on the grounds that N.C. annexation laws, written in 1959, could not have anticipated the annexation of gated communities that have paid for their own infrastructure. Pinewild residents argue they would be surrendering property rights, privacy rights and contractual rights if they are annexed.
No federal or state court has adressed this argument, attorneys argue, so it will be interesting to see how this case plays out.
