Finance committee discusses city’s long-range annexation options
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette
Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012 — The Bardstown City Council’s finance committee met Monday night and heard details about the city’s long-range annexation plans.
Larry Green, city assistant city administrator, explains annexation options during the Bardstown City Council’s finance committee meeting Monday, Sept. 10, 2012.
Larry Green, the city assistant administrator, and Mayor Bill Sheckles told the committee and assembled council members about areas that could be annexed and the issues related to annexing them.
Areas of the county served by city water and sewers — including homes in Maywood, Woodlawn Springs, the American Drive and Early Times Boulevard areas — have existing annexation agreements which were required for the areas to receive city utility services. The city is also interested in annexing businesses and industry located outside the city limits.
State statutes say that a city cannot annex industry without also annexing residential areas, Green explained. “Part of the annexation statutes say you have to have one resident for every two industrial jobs,” he said, which explains why the city hasn’t annexed companies like Chris’ Creations.
Councilman Roland Williams listens at right while finance committee member Tommy Reed comments during the Sept. 10 finance committee meeting. Councilman Joe Buckman joined the meeting by telephone, visible on the desk. Buckman and Williams are not members of the finance committee. Click to enlarge.
“In order to annex Chris’ Creations, we would have to pair that annexation with half the number of residents as they have employees,” he said. “The same thing would be true of American Greetings, the Heaven Hill warehouses, the Barton warehouses and the Jim Beam warehouses.”
Green said one reason the city hasn’t annexed Maywood and Woodlawn Springs is because they didn’t want to miss an opportunity to annex some industry at the same time. “We don’t want to use up the residential annexations without pairing them with some industrial jobs,” he said.
While not a member of the finance committee, councilman Francis Lydian comments during the discussion on future annexation plans. Click to enlarge.
The problem now, particularly with the distilleries’ bourbon warehouses, is the city has grown around them. “You can’t create an island of area in the city that unincorporated,” Green explained.
Complicating annexation of the warehouses is an agreement signed by the mayorn to not annex the Jim Beam warehouses off Withrow Court unless other every bourbon warehouse was also annexed.
“If we want to extend the city out KY 245 and not create an island, we’ll have to get all the other warehouses first,” Green said. Another factor in annexing the warehouses is calculating the number of employees included in the annexation.
For example, the Barton distillery complex is already in the city limits. If the city wishes to annex the warehouses, does the annexation require the city to calculate residential annexations based on just the jobs at the warehouses or the total jobs at the Barton distillery?
Councilman and finance committee member Bobby Simpson comments during the Sept. 10 finance committee meeting.
Another way to annex the warehouses would be to simply draw a big circle around the city and set that boundary as the new city limits, Green said. An annexation that size would take in property owners who have not signed annexation agreements, he said, noting that it takes a petition signed by 51 percent of the registered voters in an area to oppose an annexation.
“That’s where all those people in Maywood and Woodlawn Springs would count,” he said. “It’s a question of strategy.”
Sheckles noted that such an annexation isn’t on the table for the immediate future.
Green said annexing areas outside the city that are suitable for later development offers an advantage since it gives city input on planning and zoning.
Developments built in the county are built to county regulations, not the city’s he said. “We have no say about it, and then we inherit it,” Green said. If the city annexes undeveloped property, the city can control that development.
Finance committee co-chair Fred Hagan speaks on an issue during the Sept. 10 finance committee meeting. All six members of the city council attended the meeting, with council Joe Buckman participating by telephone. Click to enlarge.
Councilman Francis Lydian questioned the wisdom of such a large annexation.
Sheckles said the cost of maintaining the roads and providing police protection to annexed areas has to taken into consideration.
Hagan voiced support for annexation, calling the city’s current limits “a gerrymandered mess.”
Sheckles said annexing subdivision would need to be done with consideration of the move being cost effective and how it might affect the city’s utility income. County residents pay higher rates for city utilities, and annexed residents would pay the lower rates.
Earlier in the meeting the committee, with discussion with non-committee members of the city council, agreed to recommend the city council accept the compensating property tax rate of 18.7 cents per hundred value. The compensating rate is designed to create the same amount of tax revenue as the city received in fiscal year 2011-12. The 2012-13 rate is slightly lower than the 2011-12 rate of 18.8 cents per hundred value. For more information about that discussion, click here to read the Gazette’s story.
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