Hattiesburg officially files for annexation

In mid-April, Hattiesburg City Council members announced their intention to expand the city's boundaries by annexing parts of Forrest and Lamar counties.

On Monday, officials took the next step in that process by officially filing in Lamar and Forrest County Chancery Courts a petition for an ordinance that would allow the city to annex three distinct locations in the county: much of the commercial corridor on U.S. 98, the Windlass Drive area and a portion of U.S. 49 north of the current city limits.

"We filed intentionally in both counties because the City of Hattiesburg is situated in both counties, and we're going to seek to consolidate those into a single action later,"  said Ridgeland attorney John Scanlon, special counsel for Hattiesburg. "One thing is, there are business owners outside the City of Hattiesburg who've been requesting to be in the City of Hattiesburg, so that's one piece of motivation for the city.

"The other (thing) is that this is something the city's been looking at for a little while now, and analyzing whether or not there was a need to annex based on all the court-recognized factors. So the city made a thoughtful decision in looking at all the ways the Mississippi Supreme Court says you should approach annexation."

So the ball now appears to be in Lamar County's court, as county administrator Jody Waits said county officials are fully committed to battling the annexation.

"We intend to do all we can to stop it," he said. "It's my understanding that since they filed in court, we would object to it through the court system. So we would file an objection in the same court, objecting to it."

And county officials aren't the only ones objecting to the move. Over the last several weeks, several Windlass Drive residents have voiced their concerns about annexation, and Waits expects them to file a petition of their own in the coming weeks.

"They do not want to be in the city," he said. "They actually came en masse to one of the supervisors' meetings recently, and expressed their desire to not be in the city, and asked what they should do. So our legal counsel advised them to sign a petition saying that they didn't want to be (annexed).

"So that's part of what we'll use when we go to court — they have a right to have their voice heard during the court hearing, and we'll make sure that happens. And then any businesses that step forward also, we will make sure their voice of opposition is heard. And there have even been some people who are in areas that have already been annexed, and they've actually risen up and said they want to be de-annexed, so we're kind of dealing with that as well."

Petal officials and residents also may have a say in the matter, thanks to a state statute that requires any municipality that lies within three miles of an annexation area be made a party defendant in the matter.

"Clearly, Petal is within three miles," Scanlon said. "So Hattiesburg will be serving Petal directly with their own set of notice of service. Petal, at that point, will have the opportunity either to enter into the litigation and oppose it, or not oppose it."

Waits said Hattiesburg's annexation efforts may hit a slight roadblock in the recently-passed Senate Bill 2198, which as of July 1 requires cities to include at least 50 percent of a census block's residents in any annexation efforts. If that number isn't reached, city officials will be made to cede control over zoning and subdivision regulations to the board of supervisors of the county in which the territory to be annexed is located.

"The way Hattiesburg City Council has filed that annexation, they are not including 50 percent of the population in their annexation," Waits said. "To do that, they would have to take 50 percents of the census blocks that are in association with that proposed area, and that would include subdivisions such as Woodstone, north and south Lake Serene, Canebrake, Bridgefield.

"They would have to take about half the population of those subdivisions into the City of Hattiesburg in order to control zoning. They have not done that in this petition."

But Scanlon said he believes the city would hit that 50 percent mark, as attorneys drafted the ordinance to comply with the law.

"In each affected census block, we have designated those census block where they took 50 percent or more of the residents, and we've also likewise designated the census blocks where we take fewer than 50 percent," he said. "It's actually a separate section within the annexation ordinance that was passed by the city council, so we believe that Hattiesburg is in full compliance with the law, and we were certainly very mindful of it."

Scanlon said if Lamar County officials decide to take the matter to court, Hattiesburg officials would then obtain a hearing date from the court.

"Then we would publish and post the required notices, and serve the required notices," he said. "Then we'll all convene on whatever hearing date that would be in the future. We have not obtained it yet, but my assumption is that it will be within the next month or three or so.

"Then at that point, because of the likelihood that there's going to be a lot of opposition — and a lot of people supporting the annexation as well — we would likely put together a scheduling order and plan for the calendar for discovery deadlines, motion deadlines, and when the trial is actually going to take place."