GREENWOOD - Some Greenwood aldermen support holding an election to annex several nearby areas into Sebastian County’s second-largest city.
During a Thursday study session, three of the city’s six aldermen heard a report from an annexation committee that has been working for more than a year on a plan in case council members decide they want to annex land. The plan covers eight areas the council could consider for annexation.
Committee Chairman Robert McKinney said the committee was not making a recommendation on whether the council should pursue annexation. It was only providing facts and figures for the council.
Thursday’s session was for aldermen to hear the report and ask questions. They agreed to hold another study session at 6 p.m. Monday at Greenwood City Hall for public input and questions.
Aldermen Lee Johnson and A.C. Brown said they favored putting the annexation of all eight areas identified by the committee on the Nov. 4 ballot. Alderman Tim Terry said he favored annexation but didn’t say whether all the areas should be annexed.
Terry said residents of those areas should have a choice about whether they want to become part of Greenwood.
McKinney told the aldermen that if an election was held, the voting would be by Greenwood residents and the residents in the proposed annexation areas.
If the aldermen decide to pursue annexation, according to the committee, they would have to pass the necessary ordinances by the end of August.
Background information provided by the committee states that opinions expressed at committee meetings and a poll conducted by Shadow Lake’s homeowners association showed “most residents” of the more than 100 households in Shadow Lake oppose annexation into Greenwood. Shadow Lake is the most populated of the areas in the annexation committee’s plan.
All eight areas are on the city’s west side. Some are off the north side of town, some to the south.
The residential Shadow Lake and Valley Loop neighborhoods, both off the north side of town, receive city water, sewer, fire and police protection from Greenwood.
Other areas are sparsely developed with few people living in them. Two of the areas abut or cross U.S. 71, which the aldermen agreed would provide the city with future commercial growth.
McKinney told aldermen the city could net between $171,000 and $195,000 in revenue each year if the areas are annexed.
The 5-mill real-estate property tax the residents in Shadow Lake and Valley Loop now pay to the county would go to the city, he said. And those new residents would begin paying the city’s 3-mill street tax. Additional money to the city from those two taxes would total $76,400, according to the committee.
In addition, the city could gain between $139,000 and $163,000 in state turn back from the addition of the Shadow Lake and Valley Loop residents.
That income would be balanced against an estimated $25,500 the city could be expected to pay for street maintenance in the new areas and the loss of $18,000 that Greenwood receives each year from a 25 percent surcharge from Shadow Lake residents for water service, McKinney said.
The committee did not calculate potential sales tax that commercial properties in the annexed areas could generate or the addition of franchise fees, McKinney said.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 04/05/2014