A Case for Changing SC's Annexation Laws

[distortedlogic]

Here is what Orangeburg's mayor is doing. I think Greenville should go in this general direction as well to start with.

Exactly! Good find krazeeboi.

[Spartan]

That is good news for Orangeburg. I wish other towns and cities in SC would do the same. Do the math. Its worth it to be in the city.

I am also impressed that the comments on that article are both positive. Thats more than can be said for the other papers' comment sections in this state.

Here are some of the annexation websites for various cities in SC. Which do you think is more effective?

Charleston

Charleston - targeting James Island

Greenville

Columbia

Spartanburg [pdf]

Florence

Rock Hill

Could not find Orangeburg's. They should add this type of info to their website if they expect to achieve anything.

Greenville has the best website, IMO. Charleston's site that is geared towards James Island is the best overall, but its reach is narrow. They should transfer that to their city site. Greenville and Spartanburg are the only cities that have their forms online. I think that all cities should have websites like Greenville's. It lays out the facts and makes it easy to find forms, etc. That particular web pages was not that easy to find, however.

[breed]

While annexation may be a good thing in some cases, in most cases, annexing residential property is a fiscal loss for municipalities. Residential properties use services... non-residential properties pay for them.

[sonofaque86]

Greenville does have the best one...I guess they have to try extra harder to convince people to annex into the city since they really can't use the water and sewer system as Columbia and Charleston and other cities are doing. But I like Greenville's

[Greenville]

Rather than devoting resources toward annexing small parcels of land, wouldn't Greenville do better to try to work with Greenville County to merge the two governments together (a la Jacksonville, FL and Louisville, KY)? That way, Greenville city and Greenville county would be one. A lot of duplication would be eliminated, the city would be 400,000+, and the task of trying to annex would be unnecessary.

I realize that the city and county are sometimes on different pages, but I would think that some effort by both sides to work together would go a long way. Thoughts?

[krazeeboi]

Wasn't this attempted a few years back, to no avail?

I think that perhaps the city and county should look into merging some services first (police, fire, schoos, etc.), not unlike in Charlotte/Mecklenburg County. I'm not sure if a full merger would work right now in Greenville. Don't the city and county have two separate offices of economic development as the result of a misunderstanding or dispute?

[Spartan]

Wasn't this attempted a few years back, to no avail?

Yes.

Currently the only county looking at consolidation is Spartanburg.

[vicupstate]

I don't recall any effort to consolidate the City and County of Greenville in the ten years I have lived here. I also don't remember hearing of such an effort prior to that. The Economic Development split was between the Chamber of Commerce and the County, not the City and the County.

Greenville County Council and City Council are polar opposites in terms of their philosophy of government. While I would like to see it come about, I think it would be nearly impossible for a merger to occur. Consolidating certain functions as Krazei suggests might work though. Particularly if it saved the county money.

I thought Cherokee County and Gaffney were going to vote on Consolidation in November, what happened with that???

Frankly, the best chance for a metro county to consolidate, is if a smaller county did it first and it was successful, IMO.

[krazeeboi]

I thought the Gaffney/Cherokee merger proposal was scrapped?

[Greenville]

I don't recall any effort to consolidate the City and County of Greenville in the ten years I have lived here. I also don't remember hearing of such an effort prior to that. The Economic Development split was between the Chamber of Commerce and the County, not the City and the County.

Greenville County Council and City Council are polar opposites in terms of their philosophy of government. While I would like to see it come about, I think it would be nearly impossible for a merger to occur. Consolidating certain functions as Krazei suggests might work though. Particularly if it saved the county money.

I thought Cherokee County and Gaffney were going to vote on Consolidation in November, what happened with that???

Frankly, the best chance for a metro county to consolidate, is if a smaller county did it first and it was successful, IMO.

I agree that Greenville city and Greenville county have been polar opposites in the past (the recent past, even), but a few election cycles can change things. Didn't we recently replace some un-progressive county council members with some more forward-thinking ones? If that happens several times, then the philosophy of the entire council will be drastically different. I am obviously not holding my breath that the city and county will be on the same page anytime soon, but the difference between the two can certainly be minimized over the medium- and long-term.

[Spartan]

I thought the Gaffney/Cherokee merger proposal was scrapped?

Cerokee and Union's consolidation efforts fell apart. People dont want to give up their meaningless power of the board of the random rural fire station or whatever.

[vicupstate]

Cerokee and Union's consolidation efforts fell apart. People dont want to give up their meaningless power of the board of the random rural fire station or whatever.

Thanks for the update Spartan. A shame though.

[erm1981]

I was reading something about augusta, georgia. I believe it said augusta and richmond county consolidated together in 1996. I think augusta is in richmond county but i might be wrong.

[krazeeboi]

Augusta is indeed in Richmond County. I don't know exactly when the city and county consolidated, but it wasn't that long ago.

[Spartan]

^It was 1996.

[krazeeboi]

Here is another report (PDF file) by the same author of the original report in the first post in this thread entitled "Annexation and the Fiscal Fate of Cities." The summary states:

The flexibility to annex surrounding land and communities was more important to a city's bond rating (a sign of fiscal health) than the area's poverty rate or median household income. Annexing land, therefore, appears to be an important route to economic health and development for the nation's urban areas. State legislatures can play a vital role in ensuring the fiscal viability of their state by reviewing, and revising if necessary, state land development, zoning, and annexation laws. With careful planning, states can promote more compact development, preserve farmland and natural areas, and encourage reinvestment in older residential and commercial areas.

I found something quite interesting in all of this. The author defines cities as either "hyper elastic," "high elastic," "medium elastic," "low elastic," and "zero elastic" which is a measure of its capture/contribute percentage of its county’s population change. Hyper-elastic cities captured 64 percent of their county’s population growth; high-elastic cities, 48 percent; and medium-elastic cities, 29 percent. This is for the time period of 1950-2000. Under these conditions, Charleston actually ranks as a hyper elastic city, and Columbia as a high elastic city. We may complain about our annexation laws, but the situation here in SC is nowhere near as bad as in parts of the Northeast and Midwest.

Edited August 11, 2006 by krazeeboi

[erm1981]

I was just looking at the map for greenvilles city limits and i think it is crazy they cannot annex some of the land towards taylors or pendleton street. Those areas are very close to the main downtown. They have annexed a lot toward hubble and icar though. I imagine that will boost the population quit a bit plus youll have the residential at the new publix beside the 29 bridge comming into downtown and also out on woodruff road at magnolia town square. Not to mention all the new condos being built in various places. I like to see the density starting to take hold here in greenville. Hartford, connecticut is a similiar city as for as annexation goes. Their city limits are very small like greenville's but their county population is i think about 800,000 give or take a few.

[vicupstate]

City and County have difficulty providing services with boundaries hard to define

Excellent article on Florence's difficulties providing services with "doughnut holes" and un-streamlined boundaries. Also discusses the city of Florence's efforts to annex, including a thus-far unsuccessful effort to annex FMU. It also details some of the areas that have been consolidated between the two governments.

[vicupstate]

Residents struggle to get in or stay out of City Limits

This article is a must-read for those that follow the annexation laws/battles here in SC.

In this particular article, residents dealt with major issues around septic failures and were hampered by the current laws. Windsor Forest is an affluent neighborhood that would boost the tax rolls significantly if it were fully annexed. The 75% threshold was nearly met too. At least they will probably get most of it eventually.

This is the thord installment in a series. I will see if I can post the second installment.

[erm1981]

I was reading some articles on how spartanburg really wants to expand out a lot more but you have a stupid 75% law or 100% law that means you have to have that much of the majority your annexing to agree with it. I think NC's is only like 50% of the people plus 1.

Edited September 2, 2006 by erm1981

[krazeeboi]

Spartanburg is looking into a city-county consolidation. There's more about it in the Spartanburg subforum.

[vicupstate]

I was reading some articles on how spartanburg really wants to expand out a lot more but you have a stupid 75% law or 100% law that means you have to have that much of the majority your annexing to agree with it. I think NC's is only like 50% of the people plus 1.

N.C. allows annexation without the consent of the affected property owners. A vote of city council is all that is required, as long as certain density requirements are met.

In SC, there is the option to annex with 75% consent. Annexation can be completed quicker if the consent is 100%. There is a provision for annexation by election (Simpsonville is looking at Neely Farms for this) if 25% of those affected sign a petition. The election requirement is a simple majority. This is seldom used due to the added expense of the election.

[krazeeboi]

Here's an article in The State detailing Columbia's upcoming annexation efforts. A big advantage the city has is that some of the fastest-growing and soon-to-be fastest growing areas of the metro can potentially be captured by annexation, at least in part, as they are located in unincorporated Richland County.

[Spartan]

This is potentially good news. Columbia's desire to annex into the growing areas and not get bogged down in annexing developed areas is a wise move. The list of cities wanting to annex proactively now is growing. I think that the more large cities we get with this mentality the better, as it will be more likely to change the state law to allow change.

[803metlife]

I read that also. It seems as though the city is starting to wake up to reality and realize they must annex for the city to grow.It also said that The City of Columbia annex more than double that of last yr. So maybe all of s.c. cities will get on board and something can be done about the previous annexation law.