Here is background on what has happened so far in the debate about Columbia annexation and what steps could take place in the future.
In July 2017 the newly elected Board of Aldermen hired consultant Mike Slaughter of Oxford to study potentially taking in areas surrounding the existing limits. The cost of the study is capped at $15,000 with Phase I having cost about $5,000 and Phase II expected to cost $6,000 to $8,000.
Slaughter presented Phase 1 of his study on Feb. 7, which included a study area that would triple the city’s size and increase the population from about 6,400 to about 8,300. The area is mainly to the east and north, and the highest population density is in the Lakeview subdivision just east of the city.
The study estimated the annexation would bring in an additional $304,000 annually in property taxes and at least $115,000 in sales taxes. The sales tax would probably be more because several businesses in the proposed annexation area were not included in Slaughter’s initial analysis. The sales tax would not increase the 7 percent consumers pay, but the city would get 18.5 percent of the 7 percent sales tax rather than the full 7 percent going to the state.
Phase II of the study will go into greater detail about how much providing the additional services would cost, and aldermen have indicated they are likely to reduce some of the more far-flung parts of the initial study area.
If the city eventually settled on what it wanted to annex following Slaughter’s study, it would pass a resolution defining the boundary, the improvements it planned to make and how long it expected to take to make the improvements. The city would then file a petition in Marion County Chancery Court and run a public notice in The Columbian-Progress for three weeks before a court hearing. Parties opposed to the annexation would have the right to present their objections at the hearing.
The chancellor would determine if the annexation “is reasonable and is required by the public convenience and necessity” based on 12 standards laid out in the law:
1. The municipality’s need to expand
2. Whether the area sought to be annexed is reasonably within a path of growth of the city
3. Potential health hazards from sewage and waste disposal in the annexed areas
4. The municipality’s financial ability to make the improvements and furnish municipal services promised
5. Need for zoning and overall planning in the area
6. Need for municipal services in the area sought to be annexed
7. Whether there are natural barriers between the city and the proposed annexation area
8. Past performance and time element involved in the city’s provision of services to its present residents
9. Economic or other impact of the annexation upon those who live in or own property in the proposed annexation area
10. Impact of the annexation upon the voting strength of protected minority groups
11. Whether the property owners and other inhabitants of the areas sought to be annexed have in the past, and in the foreseeable future unless annexed will, because of their reasonable proximity to the corporate limits of the municipality, enjoy economic and social benefits of the municipality without paying their fair share of taxes
12. Any other factors that may suggest reasonableness.
The chancellor’s decision takes effect within 10 days unless an appeal is filed with the state Supreme Court. In the case of an appeal, the Supreme Court would eventually issue the final ruling.
