The East Columbus land rush is on.
Columbus City Council voted 4-2 Tuesday night to file an annexation ordinance, the next step in formally absorbing two areas located to the south and east of the city.
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones moved, with a second by Ward 1 Councilwoman Ethel Stewart, to proceed with the annexation.
Stewart, Vice Mayor and Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens, Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard and Jones voted yes, while Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene and Ward 6 Councilwoman Jacqueline DiCicco voted no.
The first of the two areas borders Ward 2 and Ward 3, and is bounded by Highway 82 in the north, Armstrong Road to the east, Lehmberg Road to the west and Deerfield Drive to the south.
The second is adjacent to Ward 1 and Ward 2. It is bounded by South Lehmberg Road on the east, the area adjacent to Scott Drive to the south, Hargrove Road to the west and Vernon Branch Creek to the north.
When the floor opened for discussion, DiCicco voiced her opposition. She said residents in the affected area had reached out to her with several concerns, especially about the city’s failure to expand sewer service to areas annexed a decade ago.
DiCicco also said she is concerned the area is low-lying and experiences frequent drainage issues.
“A large portion of the area is in a flood zone, which severely affects development,” DiCicco said. “I don’t know how many of you have ridden through the area.”
Stewart was unmoved.
“I’m very familiar with the area,” Stewart said. “If you look at the whole city, it’s pretty much a fishbowl, a flood area.”
Mickens, in responding to DiCicco, reached for scripture.
“From Genesis to Revelation, God instructs us to show compassion to those that have the least,” Mickens said. “In Proverbs it is written, ‘those who give to the poor will not lack nothing, but those who close their eyes will receive curses.’”
It’s time to move forward, Mickens said.
“We’ve had a public hearing, and we’ve explained the process from start to finish,” Mickens said. “… If there are people who still protest, they will have their opportunity in the courtroom.”
Beard said he supported annexation for the city’s future.
“We’re supposed to be good stewards of taxpayers’ dollars, but we’re also supposed to take risks to see if these things will benefit us in the long haul,” Beard said. “… I would like to go forward with this just to see what the outcome will be.”
Mickens and Jones suggested the annexation in 2022, and the city also considered bringing in Columbus Air Force Base before rejecting the idea due to prohibitively high costs. That left the original two areas on the table.
The city held an annexation town hall last month, and citizens who attended were uniformly skeptical of the idea.
Demographics: ‘I don’t think we do good in any of them’
Data compiled by the Golden Triangle Development LINK and obtained by The Dispatch shows Columbus’ economic demographics would be negatively impacted across almost all areas by the proposed annexation.
Median household income would decrease 4.9%, from $39,686 to $37,730. Per capita income would drop 5.1%, from $26,543 to $25,188.
Median disposable income would drop 6.8%, from $34,855 to $32,472, and median net worth would drop 21.1%, from $28,649 to $22,600.
Poverty rates would also go up. The number of citizens below the poverty line would increase 3%; the number of households under the poverty line would increase 2% and the number of households on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would increase 1%.
Housing numbers also don’t benefit from this annexation. The median home value would decrease 1%, from $131,065 to $129,488. Home ownership rates would also decrease 2%, from 45% owner-occupied now to 43% owner-occupied after annexation.
Labor force participation would drop from 53.1% now to 52.7% after annexation, while the labor participation rate among those ages 25-54 would decrease from 75.7% to 75%.
LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins told The Dispatch Tuesday afternoon he had heard it said that increasing the city’s population would help with retail recruitment, but he disputes that narrative.
“A lot of those retailers look at radii maps,” Higgins said. “It’s (demographics) within a 10-, 20-, 30-mile radius, so it doesn’t differentiate between whether you’re in the city or the county. Numbers, just for numbers’ sake, don’t tell the whole story.”
Businesses making business decisions look at median income, disposable income and home ownership rates, among others, he said.
“(LINK Senior Vice President for Economic Development Betsy Young) pulled these numbers because they’re what businesses look at,” Higgins said. “All those statistics are germane to somebody making business decisions. If you lay those numbers side-by-side and compare them and look at them, I don’t think we do good in any of them.”
No city officials asked the LINK for demographic data until this week, Higgins said.
“As soon as the annexation talk started to get legs, we went ahead and ran this information just assuming a variety of people would want to look at it,” Higgins said. “Up until this week when (DiCicco) asked for it, we had had two people ask us and neither of them were city officials. They were just inquiring minds wanting to know.”
Next steps
City Attorney Jeff Turnage said the next step is to file the city’s ordinance with Lowndes County Chancery Court.
“You have to publish notices in the paper and in the territory to be annexed,” Turnage said. “There is a 30-day period for people to absorb what’s in the notice, and then there will be a hearing.”
Protestors can appear at that hearing, Turnage said. The judge will set a date for a bench trial, and the city will put on its proof that the annexation is reasonable and the opponents will have a chance to refute that.
The judge will then make a ruling, and both sides have 30 days to appeal, Turnage said.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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