Hamilton County Residents Against Annexation president Kyle Holden says the City Council’s recent deletion of one property from an area to be annexed on Old Lee Highway – the only property owner in the area to have signed up to fight annexation through his organization – means the city is afraid to face HCRAA in court.
City officials admitted during the Nov. 23 council meeting that the parcel was deleted because of a lawsuit, but said it was so the rest of the area could begin receiving services – and the city could begin collecting taxes from the rest of the area.
“They filed a lawsuit. It would’ve stopped the whole annexation process out there,” Councilman Jack Benson, who represents the area, said afterward. “We can’t hold up city services on one family. The best and cheapest thing to do was deannex them. They will be subject to annexation in the future.”
An East Hamilton area resident hands over a check to Hamilton County Residents Against Annexation member Donna Holden at a recent public meeting to garner support for the organization’s cause. In addition to 25 plaintiffs in several area neighborhoods, around 35 people signed up to volunteer for the group, and several donated money.When questioned by councilwomen Sally Robinson and Deborah Scott before the vote as to why the lawsuit was reason to delete the property, City Attorney Phil Noblett said leaving the disputed parcel in would result in deleting all the others by the end of the year. He also noted that deleting the property now would allow the city to begin collecting tax revenue from the rest of the area by Dec. 31.
“If they took her out then we have no plaintiff in that area, so the lawsuit for that area would vaporize, but I still look at that as a win,” Holden said. “It’s completely legal for them to do that but I think it kind of shows the city may be afraid to face us in court on some of these areas.”
Through a public meeting Nov. 22, approximately 25 residents in three East Hamilton neighborhoods – Emerald Valley, Hurricane Creek and Windstone – signed up to be plaintiffs should the city move forward in annexing their area. Although the applicable annexation ordinance passed on first reading in 2009, the final vote has yet to be scheduled.
“The mayor put those on hold pending talks of metro government,” Holden said, noting that they are largest neighborhoods in the area identified as the second wave of annexation. “I feel that may have been an effort to cause people on this side of the river to lose interest in annexation.”
According to HCRAA treasurer Ken Carey, the group had approximately $85,000 left to fight the 14 lawsuits it had filed as of the meeting, which Holden said should take care of the one or two cases he expects to go to court in 2011.
Money collected at the meeting “may pay for a couple days of the attorney’s time,” but it “exceeded our expectations for the night,” said Holden. With battle lines continuing to be drawn, more money will be required, he added.
“In these areas we’re definitely going to have enough plaintiffs,” Holden said in regards to the East Hamilton trifecta. “Laurel Cove and most of the larger annexation areas we have enough [plaintiffs] dotted through the annexation area that the city can’t cut them out, because the city can’t leave holes for annexation.”
But those high numbers of plaintiffs can be a “double-edged sword,” he said, pointing to legal time and fees for deposing them all.
“The average person on the street thinks this is going to be solved like ‘Judge Judy’ in 30 minutes,” said Holden. “Knoxville [annexation] has been tied up in the courts for 30 years now.”