Jun 14 2008
Cage Match!
Fuquay-Varina is in a hurry to forcibly annex 1,000 acres along its northern border, partly because the Wake County town wants to beat its northern neighbor, Holly Springs, to the punch.
The land in question is a mostly residential area containing about 500 homes, bounded on the east by Sunset Lake Road, on the west by by Bass Lake Road and on the south by the Fuquay-Varina city limits.
A 20-year pact made between the two towns has kept them from approving voluntary or involuntary annexations on the other side of a line designated between the two, but it carries the stipulation that either town can end the pact at the 10-year mark. That means the agreement could end next year, said Mark Andrews, a Holly Springs public information officer.
I suppose we should be thankful this isn’t early Renaissance Italy. If it were, Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina, like Florence and Sienna of old, would arm their populaces and march out to settle it on the battlefield. Actually, I kinda wish they would do that- it would be far more entertaining!
On a serious note, THIS is what involuntary annexation gets you. Anyone think to ask what the people who actually LIVE in this tract of land want?
New services also mean residents in the area would have to start paying city taxes. Fuquay-Varina has a tax rate of 52 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
More taxes is exactly what Joani Jarrad doesn’t want.
The two-story home her family bought nine years ago in the Vintage Ridge subdivision off Sunset Lake Road is one of the homes that would be affected by the annexation.
“Our mortgage is going to go up considerably” because of the increase in taxes, Jarrad said.
She doesn’t like that the town can forcibly annex her property.
Current state law allows towns to annex unincorporated property that meets certain guidelines such as being adjacent to the town’s boundaries.
