The incorporation of territory into a city or town is not an easy process, but some officials argue that the difficulties are worth the economic benefits annexation will bring.

Increased tax revenue, residents’ requests for police protection and a voice in government are among the reasons a few Orangeburg County cities and towns are already considering expanding.

The city of Orangeburg and the towns of Vance and North are currently eyeing expansion, but the process has not been without controversy.

’Taking this banner up again’

“The train is slowly grinding down the track, but I have taken this banner up again to try to grow the city into its natural boundaries,” Orangeburg Mayor Paul Miller says.

“I have been out and talked with some civic clubs and different groups to try to emphasize the importance of the annexation ... as it relates to what we offer and what benefits the city would bring for those coming into the city,” he says.

Miller said he’s received “some fairly favorable response to” annexation.

“We’re working on three or four pieces of annexation right now that are going to be forthcoming. It’ll probably be the biggest influx of area,” the mayor said.

Orangeburg City Council first began considering annexation 10 or 12 years ago, Miller said, when it commissioned Dan Bismore of Bismore & Associates to do a study on the city’s adjacent areas.

“They were parceled out into 25 or 26 different areas,” Miller said, including the North Road business area comprised of Orangeburg Preparatory School, the International House of Pancakes , Wal-Mart and other businesses; the upper Belleville Road area; the Orangeburg Country Club area and the St. Matthews Road/U.S. 601 corridor.

“We’ve gone out to the public with a campaign to promote the value of cities and towns. They are the economic engine that promote growth within an area. The people live adjacent to the town, but they work in the town to make things happen. You have hospitals, schools, retail and all of that in that hub,” the mayor said.

“It’ll take us a while to get all that. That’s why this thing is in 26 parcels. We have to take them as we can get them. The North Road is my number one priority right now, including our recreation complex that we’re building out there behind Wal-Mart and OP. It’s not in the city. Everything on that side of Caw Caw Creek is outside of the city.”

All of this property will become contiguous to the city limits “once we put it all together,” Miller said. “A real big annexation is coming out of the North Road in the next year. It’s pretty imminent. We’ve been working on this for some time, so we’ll take it all.”

He said natural boundaries are areas within a mile or so of the city limits.

“The Legislature is wrestling with different language on annexation. Right now, you have to have 75 percent of the freeholders with 75 percent of the assessed property value petition the city to come in. Well, they’ve tried to come up with a 60/40 ratio, which would be a lot easier to do annexation. But there’s resistance to that. That’s what’s holding up the forward push across South Carolina with annexation,” Miller said.

Methods

of annexation

Howard Duvall, executive director of the Municipal Association of South Carolina, said there are three basic ways to annex property in the state, including the 100 percent method. This method allows a property owner or property owners. who own 100 percent of the property to be annexed, to petition a city, which can then take the property in by ordinance.

The second and most widely used method, Duvall said, is the 75 percent petition method, where a city has to get 75 percent of the property owners, who must also own 75 percent of the property’s assessed value, to petition the city. There are then notification and public hearing procedures before the city can annex by ordinance.

The third option is through a 25 percent petition and referendum. Once a county election commission identifies 25 percent of certified electors living in an area, the commission can then hold a referendum in the area which is proposed to be annexed. If the referendum passes and it is not petitioned by five percent of the electorate within 30 days, the annexation is approved. A city also has the option to take the area in by ordinance.

“It’s relatively difficult to annex property in South Carolina. That’s why cities try to use all of the tools available to them, including the fact that the city has water, sewer and electric utilities, to encourage those who are on the outside of the city limits to come inside,” Duvall said.

The benefits

An ordinance passed by the Orangeburg City Council has drawn the ire of some residents. The ordinance requires customers seeking new water and sewer taps and extensions from the city-owned Department of Public Utilities to sign a statement agreeing to join the city when it’s ready to annex them.

The change won’t apply to services nonresidents already receive, although a person will have to sign a covenant agreeing to annexation if he signs up for a new service. The change applies to all new customers, including those who will receive services from lines paid for with proceeds from the county’s penny sales tax.

Signing the covenant is a precursor to property owners signing an annexation petition, the first step in the lengthy process toward annexing unincorporated land into the city.

“In most cases, we already provide electric, water and gas services. They’re not paying city taxes, but what they are paying is higher water and wastewater rates – about double what the city pays,” Miller said. “They are not getting their yard debris and their trash picked up once a week unless they’re paying somebody to do it. They’re having to dispose of it themselves.”

Continued the mayor, “They’re having to purchase a fire contract for their home because these areas that I’m talking about that are natural boundaries of the city are in our fire district. So, we invested over a million dollars in two fire stations on Kennerly Road and on Prosperity Drive.”

City services such as fire hydrants; streetlights; fast, efficient police response and a cheaper rate on city recreational fees for children are among the other benefits of joining the city,“ Miller said.

’Blackmail?’

Orangeburg resident Abe Salama said having property owners sign a covenant to agree to annexation, or be left without services from the Department of Public Utilities, amounts to arm-twisting and “blackmail.”

“I want to make it clear that I have no objection to expansion whether it is to increase revenue or what. My problem is with the ordinance. This amounts to covenant restriction imposed by government agencies on the rightful private property ownership,” Salama said. “They discussed at the first reading legal aspects in a closed session ... This is a citizen concern issue. Why do you want to discuss it in executive session?”

He said the idea of annexation has not been sold to the public enough. He also said there is not enough specificity concerning natural boundaries and that the entire ordinance may be rendered illegal, anyway, if a bill which states that a municipality may not require annexation as a condition precedent to providing utility services passes in the Legislature.

“That bill hadn’t moved anywhere. It has been introduced for a number of years and has never been able to pass. I don’t anticipate it passing this year. It was referred to a committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee,” Duvall said.

He said there are several bills related to annexation currently in the Legislature, but none of them are moving anywhere.

“The debate has been over enclave annexation – the ability for a city to take in an area by ordinance. It’s those areas that are completely surrounded by the city, the holes in the doughnut,” said Duvall, noting that the City of Orangeburg’s ordinance is using normal, legal annexation methods that don’t amount to blackmailing residents.

“There’s no requirement for a municipality to serve outside the city limits, and if they want to enjoy the municipal utility services, then there can be contracts which could include annexation, or the agreement to annex once you become contiguous. There are a lot of cities that have the stipulation that if you want the municipal service, you must annex into the city,” Duvall said.

“They’re just using the attraction of their utility to get people to come into the city,” he added. “The people on the outside want to have their cake and eat it, too. The flip side of that is there’s no requirement for them (the utility) to provide that service, so if they passed the bill and the city did not want to serve outside the city limits, they (those outside city limits) would have to look elsewhere for their utility service.”

Growing the city

Miller said while annexation will boost tax revenues to be able to cover the high cost of annexation, including the price of wastewaster, fire hydrants, streetlights and other infrastructure, growing the city will help boost economic development which will, in turn, help the city earn money.

“You have people that are positioned in a cubicle up in Chicago, New York or Boston looking for towns with certain sizes to put a movie theatre, McDonalds’ or whatever. They pull up Orangeburg with a population of 13,000 when they’re looking for a place with 35,000 to 50,000 people,” Miller said. “In actuality, we have 50,000 people that live within five miles of downtown Orangeburg – 65 to 75 percent of the total population.”

Duvall said there is more to the story.

“Another angle .. is that next year, when school operating taxes are taken off property tax bills, they are going to be going down significantly. This would be a great time for the outside areas to come into the city and .. enjoy paying lesser taxes than they’re paying now,” Duvall said. “School taxes make up 50 to 60 percent of tax bills statewide.”

“What I’m saying is you can use a portion of that reduction to pay the city taxes and come into the city,” he added. “If you look at ... Orangeburg, taxes are very low, probably less than a Coca-Cola a day.”

’Developers

looking at Vance’

Vance Mayor Vernell Wright said she has already been approached by three developers who are looking to annex into the sleepy little town. She said annexation will be a process that will begin within the next two months among “those who are interested.”

“We should be getting started on making the contacts that we have to and doing the leg work. Developers are looking in this area very strongly. I have been approached by three... who have an interest in bringing businesses in the town,” Wright said.

“I know growth is going to come, and we know that we can’t stop it. It’s coming this way.”

Wright said Vance has looked at annexation in the “immediate area” – on Highway 6 toward Eutawville. She said those properties are within one-third of a mile from the town limit.

“There are some down Millcreek Road that want to come in. They’re within a half-mile radius of the town,” she said, noting that areas located within a mile of the town on Pineland Street and those on Highway 210 who lie within a quarter of a mile are also being eyed for annexation.

“I just asked for a map. I wanted to know where the boundaries were. It’s not something we’re forcing people to do.”

Wright added, “I’m not going to say that we don’t need more revenues in the town, and we know that annexation would help. There are other things to consider. Based on population growth, we’d then be able to get water and sewer grants.”

Annexation would be done in phases, she said.

“We haven’t started, but ... it could take three to four months if there are areas that really want to come in. But, I know it’s going to take us longer than that. We do have choices here. I just want to make sure that everyone gets a clear view of what’s going on and what’s not going on,” Wright said. “We’re just making sure that we’re doing things in proper order.”

Police protection was the number one reason for residents wanting to be annexed into Vance, Wright said. Wanting to be able to vote in municipal elections and run for municipal offices were among the other reasons, she said.

’We are in the

learning stages’

Like Wright, North Mayor Earl Jeffcoat said he is working to understand annexation procedures better.

While a petition has been signed with signatures dating back to September 2005, the signers did not represent 75 percent of the freeholders in the area proposed for annexation.

The town is having to start the process all over again, the mayor said.

Jeffcoat said the town is looking at annexation in the areas between Savannah Highway, U.S. 321 and the Jones Bridge Road. He said the annexation would more specifically include Wrightwood Road up to a portion of Jones Bridge Road.

Why?

“Mostly police protection,” Jeffcoat said. “Right now the North police do not go into that area. They do have town water, but some of them don’t have sewer. We would have to look up the whole story and see if it would be worth it. Annexation would cost us a lot up front, but, in the long run, it would probably pay us if everything was right for us to annex.”

But he added, “If we had to go in and put sewer lines in and such, I don’t think the tax base is high enough to support that. We’d have to do some cost assessments on everything, including water, sewer and police protection. In the long run, though, it would probably help us get grants quicker down the road.”

“We are in the learning stages,” Jeffcoat said.

Miller said the city of Orangeburg also plans to follow through with its plan in an orderly fashion.

“We want to do it orderly so that we grow the city in gradual pieces,” he said. “We couldn’t take it all on at one time. There’s just absolutely no way to just draw a line and say, ’We’re going to take all this in.’ We don’t have the resources nor the manpower to do that.”

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

You must be logged in to comment.