On Feb. 2, about 100 opponents of forced annexation, who live in communities from Asheville to Wilmington, marched down the halls of the General Assembly wearing red shirts reading “Stop NC Annexation,” and urging their representatives to support a moratorium on the practice.

A group of Nash County residents — most of them senior citizens on fixed incomes — went door-to-door explaining their plight to dozens of legislators. They claim the taxes they pay for county services would double if they were annexed into Rocky Mount.

“We have a lot of double-wides,” said resident Shirley Whitaker. “A lot of people are going to lose their homes.”

North Carolina is one of a handful of states allowing forced annexation, under which cities can incorporate separate parcels of private land or entire subdivisions without gaining the consent of property owners. For years, property-rights advocates, facing stiff, bipartisan opposition from mayors and city councils, have tried but failed to get relief from the General Assembly.

Those landowners hope this time will be different. Freshman Rep. Rayne Brown, R-Davidson, called forced annexation “archaic, undemocratic, and un-American” when she introduced legislation repealing the city of Lexington’s annexation of three Davidson County communities in the House Committee on Government Feb. 10.

Brown’s bill is one of three that would stop annexations that are already under way in specific cities — Lexington, Kinston, and Rocky Mount. The first two have passed their initial committee votes and may move to the Finance Committee as early as today.

House Bill 9, a sweeping moratorium blocking all involuntary annexations until July 1, 2012, may face its first test in the House Judiciary Committee today. The goal of the temporary moratorium is to place pending annexations on hold until the General Assembly can craft long-term reforms that are more favorable to property owners in unincorporated areas.

Brown, who lives in an unincorporated part of Davidson County, said she and her constituents are content with their county sheriff’s department, fire department, and private garbage collection services, wells, and septic systems.

The city of Lexington, not Davidson County residents, would benefit from the annexation, she said. Those being annexed would pay higher taxes for inferior services.

Red shirts flock to hearing

Rep. Stephen LaRoque, R-Lenoir, introduced the bill targeting involuntary annexation by Kinston. Lenoir County resident Stewart Smith told the House Government Committee if he were annexed, not only would he have to pay thousands of dollars to have water and sewer lines extended to his property, he also would have to buy a pump to push the water up the hill to his house and to pay for the electricity to run the pump.

Smith claimed Kinston, like other cities, was “cherry-picking” the more affluent communities to broaden its tax base.

Rep. Alma Adams, D-Guilford, who served nine years on the Greensboro City Council, said at the hearing, “you always see people oppose [forced annexation] for various reasons, but the bottom line is the services they get are services they need. They may not be services they want, but they are services they need.”

A crowd of about 50 red-shirt-wearing Lenoir and Davidson County residents burst into laughter at Adams’ comment. They cheered when Rep. Mike Hager, R-Rutherford, said it “isn’t the government’s job to tell us what we need.”

“It’s a fundamental right for our citizens to be able to choose where they live and not be subject to unwanted, unneeded fees, taxes and services,” Hager said.

Lexington Mayor John Walser, a Republican, echoed Adams’ assertion, claiming Davidson Country residents should have sewer services, whether they knew it or not.

“Eventually they’re going to need sewer,” Walser said. “Whether that’s next week or next year we don’t know, but according to the Davidson County Health Department, they have failing sewer.”

Keith Bost, a resident of Sapona (one of the communities Lexington is trying to annex) said the mayor was referring to a handful of undeveloped lots that would not percolate and that no septic tanks in the area were failing.

Walser said county residents also had the advantage of the city’s hospital, civic center, and all the other amenities of the town, “and I would suggest that we’d like a little help from them in paying for that.”

Statewide moratorium

The Senate Committee on State and Local Government held a public hearing on Senate Bill 27, that body’s version of the moratorium, Feb 8. The committee is scheduled to vote on the bill today at noon.

Paul Meyer, a lobbyist for the North Carolina League of Municipalities, said the league was ready to make “significant and meaningful” reforms to the state’s annexation statutes, but would not stand for a moratorium.

He pointed to a “temporary” moratorium on involuntary annexations in Virginia that has lasted 24 years.

“A moratorium just hurts everyone,” wrote Kelli Kukura, director of government affairs for the league, in an e-mail. “Stopping annexation is simply supporting a long-term tax increase on the vast majority of NC citizens. Our cities are where our jobs are, where our economic future lies. Legislators will begin to hear that loudly from their constituents. And stopping annexations will also result in near-town residents having to pay dearly for town amenities they already enjoy. Everyone loses.”

Dallas Woodhouse, state director for Americans for Prosperity, said a moratorium was needed to stop annexations now in litigation. “For years, we’ve tried to get the league to the table to negotiate and it has gotten us nowhere,” he said.

Last week, Rose Chappell showed legislators a picture of her 25-acre farm Rocky Mount is trying to annex.

“I have lived on the farm my whole life,” she wrote in the letter she left for lawmakers. “This is all I have and I love my farm.”

The Chappell farm has been passed down over several generations. When it was built, there were no city limits in sight, but over time Rocky Mount’s boundaries have crept “farther and farther out into the country,” she said.

Rose and her husband Charles grow tobacco, cotton, soybeans, and peanuts. Their land is surrounded by more farmland.

“I do not need water and sewer on my farm,” she wrote. “It’s a farm.”

What she does need is rainwater, she said. For years, she has collected rainwater running off her farm buildings that is not immediately absorbed into the ground. The water collects in ponds and is used later to water her crops. If she were annexed, Chappell said, she would have to pay Rocky Mount for her rainwater.

Additionally, she would have to pay the city a storm water runoff fee — assessed by the square foot — for impervious services like rooftops and driveways, where water might collect, become contaminated, and “run off” into nearby streams. Such fees may make sense inside city limits but not in an agricultural zone.

Chappell said if she were annexed, she fully expects to “lose the farm.”

Sen. Buck Newton, R-Nash, a primary sponsor of S.B. 27, said he is confident the legislation will pass the Senate.

Sara Burrows is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.