Despite opposition from potential residents, the Collegedale City Commission approved the annexation of more than 50 new parcels of land into the city at its most recent meeting.
The newly annexed properties include six zones that are situated along McDonald Road near its intersection with Tallant Road; McDonald Road along both sides of its intersection with Apison Pike; Jetrail Drive; between Watkins Street and Ooltewah-Ringgold Road; and along both Camp and Standifer Gap roads.
“If you annex me this will be the second time,” said property owner A.K. Poe. “My taxes will be about $4,000 [annually] to Collegedale. I get nothing I want or need in return. I fully object to it. I think the Collegedale culture is nothing but a culture of ‘more…’
“You want more property. You want more power. You want more control. You want more taxes. You want more of everything. When’s it going to stop?”
When asked directly about the city’s interest in ongoing and what one resident described as sometimes “aggressive” annexing, Mayor John Turner explained that in addition to bringing in commercial property, annexing helps fill in “doughnut” holes within the city that have been confusing to first responders and that make the city uniform within its boundaries.
“Our primary objective has been to look at what has commercial potential,” he said, adding that the city would lose revenue on a commercial development that was annexed into the city after its opening. “We’ve been primarily focused on that because we felt like as a board, as a group that’s elected to operate the city in the best interest of the taxpayers most responsibly, we felt it important to annex those areas that could become commercially developed so we’re protecting our revenue system moving forward.”
Aside from complaints about unwanted services and higher taxes, current Ooltewah resident Wade Witherow said he is unhappy with annexation because it seemingly diminishes the area’s history.
“I want that area to remain Ooltewah because of its black heritage,” he said, himself an African-American. “There’s over 100 years of black heritage there. The majority of the heritage in that area is black heritage and I don’t want to see that lost.”
Commissioner Katie Lamb abstained from voting on the ordinance to annex the area along Ooltewah-Ringgold Road that Witherow had described. She also asked about the process of making an area within the city a historic district in the future.
After hearing opposition from some of the more than 20 people in attendance at the meeting, Commissioner Larry Hanson asked about separating the vote and the public hearing time into two different meetings in the future.
“I hear a lot of information here I’d like to process before immediately voting on it,” he said. “I’d like to have heard the things I heard tonight before our first reading so it’s something I could think about for awhile.”
In addition to annexation and several other items of new business, the Commission elected Turner as mayor for another term and Tim Johnson as Vice Mayor for another term. Commissioners Lamb and Debbie Baker were re-elected to the Commission for another term this month. They ran unopposed alongside fellow incumbent Johnson for the three seats. Turner and Hanson are up for general re-election to the Commission in 2015.