
{"id":83,"date":"2007-04-05T06:13:32","date_gmt":"2007-04-05T14:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/04\/05\/de-annexation-bill-underlines-concerns\/"},"modified":"2007-04-05T06:14:03","modified_gmt":"2007-04-05T14:14:03","slug":"de-annexation-bill-underlines-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/04\/05\/de-annexation-bill-underlines-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"De-annexation bill underlines concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Legislation introduced in the N.C. House would take Highlands neighborhood out of <\/em>Carrboro<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>By Kirk Ross<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/em>Staff Writer<\/p>\n<p>Residents of the Highlands neighborhood took their complaints about their recent contentious annexation into Carrboro to the legislature and the result, House Bill 1061, would reverse the inclusion of the neighborhood in the town limits.<\/p>\n<p>And though the bill, filed last week by Rep. Bill Faison, who represents Orange and Caswell counties, is not given much of a chance of passage, longtime opponents of Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s moves say it sends an important message.<\/p>\n<p>Katrina Ryan, a Highlands resident who ran for the Board of Aldermen in the last election, said the fact that 70 out of 93 households in the neighborhood signed on to a petition asking for the de-annexation bill shows how widespread the discontent is.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Ryan, who did not sign the petition herself, said she thinks the General Assembly effort is a longshot, but even if it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pass she hopes the effort will put to rest the notion that only a few residents are stirring things up. In addition to lingering resentment about the way the annexation was handled, Ryan said the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision not to annex roads in the area and hesitation to move forward on a new northern fire station are fueling concerns.<\/p>\n<p>The law requires equal services, she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some are less equal than others,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she added. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Not much is coming our way.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Sharon Cook, a newly appointed member of the town planning board and a Highlands resident, said the roads issue is a key part of the residents\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 complaints.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Obviously not annexing the streets was a shock,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Cook said resolution of the issue likely will take time and elections. Not having a chance to vote in the past election is still a sore spot with those who were annexed, she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a basic principle\u00e2\u20ac\u201dno taxation without representation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Alderman Randee Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell said she had hoped the New Horizons Task Force, which she championed, might have helped work through the concerns. But the Highlands neighborhood, she said, chose not to have a representative on the task force. And while town leaders have learned some valuable lessons about how not to annex, she said some resentment when a neighborhood is annexed is unavoidable.<\/p>\n<p>Alderman Dan Coleman said the poorly handled annexation intensified feelings of unfairness that come up in almost any involuntary annexation. He does not see an immediate remedy to the hard feelings.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is the kind of thing that takes time to heal,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It may be a few years before this plays out.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell said the General Assembly is not likely to pass de-annexation legislation in part because it may cause neighborhoods in other parts of the state to try the same move, creating a domino effect.<\/p>\n<p>House Speaker Joe Hackney, whose district represents parts of Orange County\u00e2\u20ac\u201dincluding the southern tip of Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand all of Chatham County said this week he does not think the legislation will pass. The bill currently rests in the House rules committee.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Faison could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Legislation introduced in the N.C. House would take Highlands neighborhood out of Carrboro By Kirk Ross Staff Writer Residents of the Highlands neighborhood took their complaints about their recent contentious annexation into Carrboro to the legislature and the result, House Bill 1061, would reverse the inclusion of the neighborhood in the town limits. And though&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}