LaForce: Gum Springs not in annexation area

By Tim Bousquet  8 July 2004
The Daily Citizen

Just as officials from the City of Searcy were preparing to explain their plans to annex areas west and south of the city, they were bombarded by complaints from people mistakenly thinking they are about to be brought into the city.

"There's a complete misunderstanding of what we're trying to do," said Mayor Belinda LaForce Friday. "There's some miscommunication here."

LaForce said she has heard of complaints and of a petition drive against the annexation from people on Gum Springs Road, moe than three miles away from the proposed annexation area.

The misunderstanding is likely related to two legal notices printed in The Daily Citizen last Sunday. The first, printed on page 2A, was a notice of a public hearing on the annexation proposal slated for Tuesday evening. The second, printed on page 5B, was the required publication of an ordinance the Searcy City Council adopted at its June 8 meeting. The ordinance delineated what is known as the "Planning Area Boundary."

The proposed annexation area extends, roughly, north to Collins Road, west to Valley Road, south to Booth Road and east to Hwy 36.

Searcy's planning area boundaries are, roughly, Foster Chapel Road on the north, Crosby Road on the west, Des Arc Bayou on the south and Hwy 67 on the east. In some places, the planning area boundary is as far as four miles distant from the city boundary, and up to three miles past the proposed annexation boundary.

The two - the annexation area and the planning area - are related, and there is plenty of room for confusion. But residents of Gum Springs are in no danger of being annexed into the city - at least, not any time soon.

Planning area

The Arkansas Constitution allows the city to have a planning area that can extend for as far as five miles outside the city boundary. The planning area takes in property that will likely one day in the future - far in the future - become part of the city.

The main purpose of the planning area is to make sure new subdivisions meet city standards, so that when the area is annexed it can seamlessly be merged into the urban area.

This isn't so much a secret plot on the part of the city to double its size as it is to catch up with reality on the ground. Whether residents in the planning area like it or not, property owners have been developing the area for many years, and places like the Gum Springs have become bedroom communities for Searcy.

Until recently, new subdivisions outside the city limits have been nearly unregulated. Developers sold off the houses and lots, and turned the streets over to government control. But then officials found themselves dealing with a range of problems not of their own creation. Shoddily built streets weren't wide enough for fire trucks and began falling apart when garbage trucks drove down them. Poorly designed drainage channels were overwhelmed in heavy storms, flooding neighboring houses and roads.

Hoping to head off the problems, County Judge Bob Parish has long discussed creating a county planning commission to impose a set of standards on new developments. Meanwhile, the city's planning area gives officials some limited control over how they are built.

"The only thing we do is regulate a developer who brings in a plat map, showing that the drainage is okay and that the street widths meet city code, that sort of thing," said LaForce.

"We don't have any other authority over anything else that happens in the planning area," she stressed. "We're not regulating zoning, building permits or anything else."

Still, by definition, the planning area is "the area in which the City intends to exercise its territorial jurisdiction ...," or, in other words, that will one day be annexed.

The planning area and the annexation process are part of the same bureaucratic continuum. Officials identify areas that are being developed and exert some regulatory over them through the planning area. Areas that are already heavily developed, or are on the verge of being heavily developed, are then directly annexed into the city in order to more sensibly provide city services like sewers and garbage pick-up.

But it's anyone's guess as to how long the process takes.

"I won't say we'll never annex those areas," said LaForce of the planning area. "But it's not anything we're interested it doing any time soon."

City planners speak of Searcy reaching out to incorporate the planning area in terms of decades and generations, not years. One day, many can see a single gigantic metropolis stretching from Little Rock to Searcy, but that day is so far in the future as to be meaningless.

For the present, they plan for the next generation of city leaders, hoping to prevent costly problems in the future by making sure present-day development proceeds in an orderly fashion.

Annexation area

Searcy city officials have been meeting for about six months to discuss annexation - bringing more land directly under city jurisdiction.

Through the discussions, the officials repeatedly scaled back the scope of annexation for fear of facing overwhelming opposition. The proposed annexation areas will doubtless be opposed by some - Honey Hill Road residents have already spoken against the plan.

Sheriff Pat Garrett, who recently built a house in the area, fires guns with his children on his property - a pasttime that will be outlawed once his property is annexed.

Wayne Stroup moved to the area nearly 50 years ago precisely to get from out of the city's legal yoke, and now worries that city will regulate how many animals he owns.

But others see annexation as an opportunity to bring city services to their property. Residents with failing septic systems hope the city sewer system will extend to them. Others hope to get city garbage service, or to be served by a professional, rather than a volunteer, fire department.

For now, officials have taken a go-slow approach. Police and fire service will be extended immediately, but paving streets and extending sewer lines will wait until construction can be financed. The city code will be amended such that rural lifestyle issues, like having horses, will be grandfathered in.

LaForce, City Planner Jim von Tungeln and Steve Jordan, secretary of the Searcy Planning Commission, will present the details of the annexation proposal at a public meeting Tuesday night at the Carmichael center. Maps showing the areas the annexation area will be available at 5 p.m., and the presentation proper will begin at 6 p.m.

The Searcy City Council will be asked at its July 13 meeting to place the annexation issue on the November ballot.