City leaders consider annex of acreage at coming bypass

By John Howell Sr.

Batesville city officials, including its mayor and aldermen and two planning commission members, met Monday to hear urban planner Mike Slaughter describe the procedure to annex areas south of present corporate limits.

The mayor and aldermen invited Slaughter to give them an overview of the annexation process after the Batesville Planning Commission adopted by unanimous vote at its Feb. 22 meeting, a resolution urging the move.

The resolution, which is non-binding, recommended that the city annex property within 300 yards of the bypass right-of-way to control the growth that will develop within view of motorists. Plans call for the contract for bypass construction to begin in 2014 with completion in four to five years, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) said Wednesday.

Slaughter, a Batesville native who graduated from South Panola High School in 1975, is president of Slaughter and Associates Urban Planning Consultants of Oxford and Bay St. Louis. His firm charted Batesville’s course through the lengthy 1990s annexation that extended corporate limits eastward.

Slaughter said the annexation could be a seven-step process that would begin with a feasibility study to determine whether the action would be “reasonable” for the city. The study would consider need, demographics, municipal finances, ability to provide municipal services and other factors, Slaughter said.

The city could adopt an annexation ordinance if the study proved favorable, the consultant continued. Then, “In Mississippi, it has to go to Chancery Court; the burden of proof is on the city to prove that it’s reasonable,” Slaughter told the mayor and aldermen.

The hearing in Chancery Court gives people who oppose annexation opportunity to present their objections, Slaughter said. A ruling favorable to the city would allow the annexation to proceed and to finally become effective as soon as the redistricting is approved by the U. S. Department of Justice. Anyone who opposes a court annexation decision favorable to the city has the right to appeal, Slaughter said.

“What is the long and short period?” Ward 2 Alderman Stan Harrison asked, between the adoption of the annexation ordinance and the initial Chancery Court hearing.

“Probably 60 to 90 days to get a return day to see if there are any objections,” Slaughter said. If there are no objections, the judge could issue an order from the bench approving the annexation.

The annexation during the last decade that incorporated areas along Highway 35 North, along Brewer Road started in 1994, Bobbie Jean Pounders said. Pounders, who attended the meeting with Richard Corson as members of the planning commission, served as Ward 4 Alderman during that annexation, which was completed in 2000.

“It was appealed, we had some objectors,” Assistant City Attorney Colmon Mitchell said. A group who opposed the annexation hired an attorney. The final annexation order excluded some of the area that had been included in the original proposal, the attorney said.

Further discussion indicated:

•Services and benefits proposed as part of the prior annexation that have not yet been provided “will be something that we would look at and something that the court is going to look at,” the urban planning consultant said. “If there’s something that the city hasn’t done, we are going to want to know whether it’s a reason it hasn’t been done and explain that to the court,” Slaughter added.

•Municipal fire and police protection becomes effective in a newly incorporated area upon a favorable ruling from a Chancery Judge while the municipality awaits final approval from the Justice Dept.;

•The feasibility study includes consideration the city’s ability to maintain its fire protection insurance rating;

•Because of the proximity of the proposed annexation area to its municipal limits, Courtland would have the right to object if it also has plans to annex, Mitchell said.

•Slaughter’s presentation was based on MDOT’s “Preferred Alternate US278/MS6 (Batesville Bypass) document,” he said.

“I have made no predetermination” about the area to be annexed, he said.

“You haven’t made a decision on that?” Pounders asked aldermen.

“As a matter of fact — I can speak for them — they haven’t hired a consultant yet that I know of,” Slaughter quipped, provoking laughter around the room. “I’m here on my own nickel.”