Fayetteville’s long struggle to forcibly annex Gates Four took a new turn this week that puts the matter back before a judge.
The city is one of five that filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the state’s annexation reform law, which allows landowners to petition to fend off annexation. The lawsuit says the petition drives violate the North Carolina constitution.
A lawyer representing the five municipalities asked a judge Thursday to temporarily halt the petitioning process until the broader issues in the lawsuit are decided. The Wake County Superior Court judge ruled that the petitioning in some of the affected cities can continue for now, according to The Associated Press.
Legislation adopted by the General Assembly this summer blocks involuntary annexations if 60 percent of landowners in the targeted area sign petitions. But the Republican-led legislature went one step further, requiring the petition drive to apply specifically to Gates Four and other annexation efforts under way under previous state rules in Lexington, Goldsboro, Kinston and Wilmington. In the case of Goldsboro, the petition drive had to be applied to a community that was annexed three years ago.
Those cities are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
Gates Four is a gated community in western Cumberland County with about 650 homes and an 18-hole golf course. On Monday, the county Board of Elections certified that more than 90 percent of petitions to deny annexation were signed by Gates Four landowners.
The lawsuit has placed that petition outcome in jeopardy. According to the lawsuit, Gates Four would have been annexed into Fayetteville on Sept. 30 had it not been for the annexation-reform law and petition drive.
Municipal officials in the lawsuit argue that the petitions discriminate against renters who don’t own property in the area and deprive other city residents of their right to vote.
Fayetteville first tried to annex Gates Four in 2003. Both sides reached a settlement the next year preventing annexation.
The city tried again in 2008. The Gates Four homeowners association sued again but lost its legal fight this year when the state Supreme Court declined to intervene.
Mike Molin, a spokesman for Gates Four, said the latest lawsuit wasn’t a surprise given the amount of tax revenue Fayetteville stands to gain if it wins its fight.
City planners have estimated Fayetteville would gain more than $2 million in new tax revenue over five years by annexing Gates Four. The city has spent more than $190,000 in legal fees fighting for the Gates Four annexation since 2008.
Members of the Fayetteville City Council have been tight-lipped about the ongoing litigation.
“I’m going to have to direct that to the city attorney’s office,” Councilman D.J. Haire said Thursday.
Councilman Bill Crisp, who voted against the Gates Four annexation, said the state’s annexation reform law “was hastily crafted and needs to be re-assessed.”
Mayor Tony Chavonne said the council members decided in a closed meeting Monday to be a part of the lawsuit, but the decision wasn’t unanimous. Chavonne declined to reveal his stance on the lawsuit.
The cities involved with the lawsuit will share the legal costs.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice pre-cleared the petition process, disagreeing with the contention held by Fayetteville and the other cities that the process was discriminatory against voters.
Chavonne told The Fayetteville Observer then that he personally opposed the city taking any further action against Gates Four.
The lawsuit names as defendants the state of North Carolina, the state Board of Elections and the local boards of elections in Cumberland and four other counties.
“They’re basically suing the (county) Board of Elections for following state law,” Cumberland County Attorney Ricky Moorefield told the county commissioners Thursday.
The lawsuit blind-sided the commissioners. Commissioner Jeannette Council said a courtesy call by the city would have been nice.
“That does not pass the common-sense test to me,” Council said.
Commissioner Kenneth Edge, president of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners, said the association might file a motion in support of the counties being sued.
By Andrew Barksdale
Staff writer
Published: 08:35 AM, Fri Dec 02, 2011
