Studies for annexing northern area OK'd
By Barbara Arntsen
Published in News on January 21, 2004 2:03 PM
The Goldsboro City Council agreed Tuesday to spend $250,000 on studies connected with annexing areas northwest of town.
Several subdivisions are under consideration, including an area where residents had wanted to form their own town called "Northbrook" in an effort to fend off annexation.
The area includes the east and west sides of Salem Church Road and the north and south sides of Buck Swamp Road. It includes Ashby Hills, Fallingbrook Estates, Morgan Trace, Buck Run, Pineview Acres, Tarklin Acres and Canterbury Village subdivisions.
The entire area under consideration is about 410 acres.
Council members hired the Raleigh engineering firm of Stearns & Wheeler and the LaGrange surveying firm Butler-Atlantic to conduct separate studies.
Stearns & Wheeler will determine how utilities should be installed if the area were annexed. The surveying company will prepare a preliminary boundary survey and other required work needed for the project.
Because there's no money in the city's current budget for the studies, the council voted for the city to take a temporary loan from the utility fund to pay for it.
Next year the city will sell sanitary sewer bonds, and the loan to the utility fund can then be repaid, city officials said.
Though this is the first step in the process, the city began meeting opposition to annexation over a year ago. A group of residents north of the city had petitioned the Legislature to allow the creation of the town of Northbrook. The city objected, and the proposal failed.
No opposition was heard Tuesday to the city's plans to commission the studies. Public hearings will be held later, as the process progresses.