In advance of Hattiesburg’s proposed annexation along the business corridor of U.S. 98, city officials have adopted an amendment that would add an additional water tower, as well as repeal a bill that would make officials cede zoning control after annexation.
The measure was passed by Hattiesburg City Council members during last week’s meeting and will make those changes to the current Services and Facilities Plan, which was adopted by the council in April. The plan outlines the personnel, equipment and capital needs that would be required to extend the city’s current services in the event of annexation.
“As part of the water and sewer infrastructure, there would need to be an additional water tower put out west to provide pressure for a fire line,” Mayor Toby Barker said. “When you consider the westward trajectory of the city, that would provide for that.”
The amendment also repeals Senate Bill 2198, which was passed in 2016 and requires cities to include at least 50 percent of a census block’s residents in any annexation efforts. If that number isn’t reached, city officials would be made to cede control over zoning and subdivision regulations to the board of supervisors of the county in which the territory to be annexed is located.
The bill was authored by Sens. John Polk, Billy Hudson and Joey Fillingane, and received some pushback from Hattiesburg officials. The bill was criticized as being “Hattiesburg-specific” and written solely with Hattiesburg in mind, as it specified a city residing in two counties – as does Hattiesburg in Forrest and Lamar counties.
“That annexation law that was passed in 2016 and applied only in Hattiesburg has now been repealed,” Barker said. “So that can be taken away from some of the planning and zoning specifications in the plan as well.”
Annexation was originally proposed in April 2016, when council members declared their intention to expand the city’s boundaries. If successful, annexation would take in much of the commercial corridor on U.S. 98, extend the city limits to Covington County along U.S. 49 and include the Windlass Drive area behind Newpointe Shopping Center.
According to the Services and Facilities Plan adopted in April, several of the city’s departments – such as the Accounting Division, Administration, Code Enforcement Division and Hattiesburg Police Department – would not require any additional personnel or major equipment for annexation. Several operating or redistricting expenses would be incurred, including a one-time cost of $5,000 to redistrict and assign annexed areas to an election ward.
The city’s comprehensive plan also would need to be updated to include annexed areas, and the zoning map would have to be amended to apply to those properties. The comprehensive plan update would be a one-time cost of $25,000, while updating the zoning map would cost $10,000.
In the case of the police department, operating costs would increase $14,602 in year one of annexation, $14,849 in year two, $15,100 in year three, $15,355 in year four and $15,615 in year five. The Parks and Recreation Department would need to hire two new crew workers in the first year at a combined annual salary of $69,050, and purchase new equipment such as a crew cab truck and mowers.
Approximately $10.4 million would be spent for water and sewer needs along U.S. 98, including $3.34 million in water improvements and $7 million in sewer improvements. The area along U.S. 49 would see approximately $6.8 million in that endeavor, including $1.7 million for water improvements and $5.1 million in sewer improvements.
Hattiesburg’s annexation of those areas would interfere with the proposed incorporation of the Bellevue community, as annexation would include many properties that would fall under that incorporation, including Corner Market, Hattiesburg Clinic – Bellevue and Mack’s West. Bellevue officials, as well as the Lamar County Board of Supervisors, have previously challenged the measure in court.
Proponents of the incorporation of the community recently redrew the boundaries for the proposed municipality – almost a year after withdrawing their original petition for incorporation – and are currently collecting signatures on a second petition.
“This really is the most ludicrous annexation attempt probably in the state of Mississippi,” said John Adcock, mayor-select of Bellevue, in a previous story. “(They’re) coming down Highway 98, not taking any voters, and taking all the sales tax out of the area, and trying to do so without giving the people of that community a vote or a say-so.”
