This Lexington Dispatch editorial straddles the fence on the recent annexation ruling, yet offers up more reasons why the city should just give it up:
One thing the council members must consider in deciding their next course of action is money. The city has already spent tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees associated with the case. That number could grow if the judge requires the city to pay the opponents’ legal costs or the city appeals. Other costs deal with preparing to annex the areas into the city. The problem for the city is its budgets and long-range planning anticipate the revenue from the annexation targets, so those numbers would have to be reworked if the city decides not to go forward.
Many opponents showed their willingness to go to great costs, even pursuing a legal remedy, to resist being annexed into the city limits; 260 were part of the lawsuit. They were vocal at meetings held by the city and wrote letters to the editor and placed signs in their yards stating their position. Certainly not everyone in the affected areas opposed the annexation, but those who favored it remained mostly quiet. City leaders must decide whether the advantages of adding residents outweighs the bad feelings many of them will hold.
Still, the local paper of record holds out hope for a compromise. Good luck with that.
Update: I realize my logic may have been faulty when I suggested that a provision to ban or limit gated communities in Greensboro’s proposed land development ordinance sets up more land for the city to annex. If it’s a city ordinance, then we’re already talking abut land that’s within the city limits, and thus wouldn’t have to be annexed. Still, the city must view gated communities as some sort of threat to their power.
