Aiming at nearly $278,000 in taxes, the City Council took its first formal step Tuesday to annex an estimated 44 businesses and 1,462 residents.

After unanimously approving the lengthy annexation ordinance Tuesday evening, the council can file an annexation request in Lowndes County Chancery Court, which would schedule a public hearing for the proposal.

If there are objections, the annexation could be tied up in litigation for years, said planning consultant Chris Watson, whose Oxford urban planning firm, Bridge and Watson, charted the annexation.

And, Watson added, “It”s more common for there to be objectors than not.”

But Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens, whose ward abuts the planned annexation near Lehmberg Road, said the council already took that into consideration and is expecting the annexation to be complete within the next year.

“These sites were selected (because) there wouldn”t be a whole lot of resistance,” he said.

The annexation would include four areas, with the largest acquisition along Lehmberg Road and Highway 12 — an area that blossomed in recent years, Mickens said.

The city also would take in the Riverwalk on the west side of town, and part of Woodland Heights Drive and the land up to and including the recently opened Columbus Middle School on the north side.

Although broader, long-term annexation plans have been discussed, “Usually, you see a city take one bite of the apple at a time,” Watson said.

From the city”s perspective, the annexation is a win win, Mickens said. A higher-population city would attract more businesses, and the annexed businesses would swell the city”s coffers.

The population increase would also offset the 2,000 or so people who left the city according to the recent census. The population fell from an estimated 25,944 in 2000 to 23,640 in 2010.

But the annexation could postpone a planned redistricting to split the population more evenly between wards.

“We don”t even want to touch the redistricting until we take care of the annexation,” Mickens said.

Another reason spurring the city to move ahead with the acquisition is revenue.

The annexed property will cost the city an estimated $187,742 in upkeep, but the 44 incorporated businesses that will be taken in are expected eventually to bring in annual net revenue of $277,859, city Chief Operations Officer David Armstrong said earlier this year.

But short term, the council”s decision to move forward with the annexation means dipping into the city”s reserves.

In April, the city added another $88,500 to its budget to compensate Bridge and Watson, engineering firm Neel-Schaffer and law firm, Mitchell, McNutt and Sams, for their work on the project.

The council had initially budgeted just $5,000 for the annexation, which was planned for the fiscal year beginning in October.