It will be nine months to a year before Lowndes County Chancery Court decides Columbus’ annexation case.
During the first court hearing Monday on the city’s proposed annexation, Judge Rodney Faver said a trial date won’t be set until a Nov. 20 status conference on the case. He estimated the trial would start “nine months out,” which would be April 2025 at the earliest.
The city council voted in March to pursue annexing two areas east of the current city limits. The first 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.
It would add almost 2,000 citizens to the city’s population, with 91% Black, 7% white and 2% categorized as “other.”
At Monday’s hearing, attorney Chad Mask, of the Jackson-based Carroll, Warren and Parker firm, represented Columbus alongside City Attorney Jeff Turnage. Jerry Mills, of the Ridgeland-based Mills, Scanlan, Dye and Pittman firm, represented objectors on behalf of Lowndes County, which agreed to pay up to $50,000 in legal fees to oppose annexation.
Mayor Keith Gaskin and Ward 6 Councilwoman Jacqueline DiCicco, both of whom have publicly opposed the annexation plan, were the only other city officials present. No citizens showed Monday to voice their objections.
The city has the burden to prove the reasonableness of the annexation plan based on 12 factors laid out in state law: the city’s need to expand; if the proposed area is in the city’s growth path; potential health hazards in the area; if the city has the money to pay for annexation; planning and zoning needs in the area; municipal service needs there; natural barriers between the city and the proposed area; the city’s performance history with past annexations; economic, social or other impact; if it has an impermissible impact on minority voter strength; if citizens living there already receive benefits for their proximity to the city without paying their fair share of taxes; and other factors the court may choose to consider.
Mask told The Dispatch those factors aren’t “a checklist,” and the court will consider “the totality of circumstances” when deciding.
Still, he believes the city can show compelling evidence for each factor.
“The city feels great about the case,” Mask said. “If you drive out to the proposed area, you ask, ‘Why is this area not already in the city of Columbus?’”
The plan has drawn broad criticism, even having to overcome a veto from Gaskin to move forward. The Golden Triangle Development LINK, the area’s industrial recruitment arm, reported before the council’s initial vote in March the proposed annexation would increase the city’s poverty rate by 2% and would lower median home values and disposable income in the city by between 5 and 7%.
However, the council majority pushing the plan believe providing city services to the proposed area will improve those residents’ quality of life.
Mills, while he wouldn’t discuss specifics of his case, said he’s spoken to plenty of residents in the proposed area who do not want to be annexed.
“There are a number of citizens who are highly upset,” he told The Dispatch. “After listening to their reasons, I think they are quite valid.”
Citizens can also file pro se objections with chancery court that the judge will consider, Mills said. Faver noted Starkville’s most recent annexation, which was settled in 2022, involved 30 pro se objectors.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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