More than a year after the Columbia Board of Aldermen first considered an annexation study, the board is still waiting on the numbers needed to make a decision.
In July 2017 the board hired Oxford-based Slaughter and Associates to study potentially taking in areas surrounding the existing limits. The cost of the study is capped at $15,000. The city last had a discussion about the issue in an April 24 meeting at City Hall.
Mayor Justin McKenzie said this week the city has not received any additional information since the April meeting, where the board learned the firm was gathering information from the city’s department heads.
“Everything has been done as far as the department heads go,” he said. “Slaughter needed specific information from each of them. I’m going to have to check with them and see on an update.”
Mike Slaughter presented Phase 1 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.
Those annexed would potentially benefit from city services like police protection, sewer service and a lower fire rating at a cost of higher property taxes. The study estimated the annexation would bring in an additional $304,000 annually in property taxes and at least $115,000 in sales taxes.
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, th e 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.
During a meeting on April 17, citizens raised concerns. The second phase, when released, is designed to answer many of those questions.
“We hope to have some answers in the near future,” McKenzie said.
