City annexing land with new law
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on December 29, 2014 1:46 PM
Goldsboro recently completed annexing one property and is in the progress of annexing another.
The contiguous annexation currently in progress involves land located between North William Street and Patetown Road, on the north side of Industry Court, and was requested by Worrell Contracting Co.
Since 2000, Goldsboro has annexed 3.6 square miles of contiguous properties, and 0.33 square miles of non-contiguous land.
"Most of the time when people want to be annexed they need the availability of the city's sewer services, or they want to sell alcoholic beverages since it's a dry county," said planning department administrative assistant Sally Johnson.
The most recent annexation was of a rental house belonging to Walter and Barbara Anderson on New Hope Road that needed to hook up to the city's sewer system, Ms. Johnson said. It was a contiguous annexation.
Other recent annexations include Walmart shopping centers, which allows them to use city sewer services and sell wine and beer.
Annexation laws changed approximately two years ago, according to city Planning Director James Rowe. The city could once force annexation if the City Council saw the need to do so and certain standards were met, but that is no longer the case.
Due to changes in state law, annexation is now a petition process in which residents that wish to be annexed must petition the city and go through a public hearing.
With the new law also came yet another change -- the city no longer has to send notices of annexations to the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. In the past, annexation notices were sent so the Department of Justice could ensure annexations weren't being used to gerrymander voting districts.
The law change occurred on June 25, 2013.
Ms. Johnson said the annexation process usually takes about two months to complete.