LAUREL HILL — The City Council is considering an annexation policy for presentation at its February meeting.
Questions surrounding the cost and procedure for annexation spurred creating such a document.
Johnny James, a former councilman, recently filed a request for annexation after losing his council seat. He'd learned last year that his residence is adjacent to the city, but not actually in it. After James raised and presented the $2,500 filing fee, the city initially requested almost $1,000 more to cover consultants’ fees.
Councilman Scott Moneypenny was tasked with researching annexation procedures in neighboring communities. After reviewing nearby cities’ policies, the council settled on Crestview’s three-page policy, which members found concise.
City attorney Daniel Campbell cautioned the council to keep the annexation procedure simple.
“We could make this as complicated as possible, but that's not the reason we're doing this,” he said. “The reason we're doing this is to make it as easy as possible to bring that property into the city and make the revenue from its property taxes off it.”
When Council Chairman Larry Hendren recommended having annual policy reviews to assure fees align with actual annexation costs, Councilman Travis Dewrell offered another solution.
“Anything that we don't know how much it's going to cost, or if the price is subject to change, all we need to say is the petitioner will pay the actual cost,” he said.
The council agreed to have Hendren turn the recommended policy into an official city document and have Campbell review it before the council votes on it as an ordinance.
The Laurel Hill City Council plans to review an ordinance and policy on annexation 6 p.m. Feb. 4 at city hall
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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Laurel Hill officials mull annexation policy (DOCUMENT)