Oktibbeha County residents opposed to Starkville’s effort to annex land east of the city have the opportunity this week in chancery court to challenge the officials spearheading the effort.
Mayor Lynn Spruill, Ward 2 Alderman Sandra Sistrunk and City Clerk Lesa Hardin faced questions Monday about their goals and the financial feasibility of the endeavor from the group against annexation — which citizen Dwight Prisock said has shrunk from 30 to about eight over the past year.
“I think that you plan for the future, and I think our growth will be toward the industrial area to the east of us,” Sistrunk said when asked why the city wants to annex the land along the Highway 82 and Highway 182 corridors out to Clayton Village and in the University Hills area on the east side of Mississippi State University.
The hearing will continue throughout the week, and further in January and February if Chancery Judge Joseph Studdard does not decide before then whether the annexation ordinance, drawn up in 2019, will go forward. The ordinance will take effect 10 days after approval.
The board of aldermen voted 3-3 in August 2019 — Ward 3 Alderman David Little was absent — on whether to move forward with annexation, and Spruill broke the tie to vote in favor.
Sistrunk, Ward 4’s Jason Walker and Ward 5’s Hamp Beatty supported the annexation plan, while Ben Carver of Ward 1, Roy A. Perkins of Ward 6 and Henry Vaughn of Ward 7 opposed.
When the annexation study process began in the fall of 2017, the city set out with the hope of bringing Mississippi State University into Starkville’s city limits and pushing the population to more than 30,000 people. MSU declined to be a part of the annexation, and aldermen cut the original, larger annexation area to one that’s much smaller for the sake of agreement, Sistrunk said.
The city officials insisted that annexation is a financially sound maneuver. Prisock disagreed and said the city will have to pay a combined $5 million for road improvements and water line expansion, plus about $200,000 per year in bond repayments.
Most of the citizens against annexation have property in the proposed annexation area (PAA), and some are low-income residents, Prisock told The Dispatch.
“Several people out there don’t have the money to comply with code enforcement or building codes,” he said.
It is too early to know how the PAA will fit into the city’s existing ward map, since data from this year’s U.S. Census will require the city to redraw ward boundaries in accordance with population changes, Sistrunk said. Additionally, the entire board of aldermen is up for election in April 2021.
“We don’t want to end up with some gerrymandered product,” Sistrunk said. “We want to keep groups in a logical collection.”
Prisock asked why the city wants to bring in an area that is already mostly developed. Sistrunk said redevelopment is a normal occurrence in cities and the area should expect more growth.
“I think when you have that orderly development, businesses will be attracted to areas where they know there will be other businesses,” Sistrunk said. “If you don’t know what’s going to be adjacent to you, you’re more reluctant to invest in a property.”
Prisock asked her if she is aware of support for annexation from residents within the PAA, and Sistrunk said she would prefer there to be more.
“I know people outside the PAA who wish they were in it,” she said.
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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