BY DONNA SWICEGOOD

In what he describes as an effort to preserve vanishing farmland, Rep. Jeff McNeely has introduced legislation that would provide people who live outside municipalities in Iredell County with a voice when the City of Statesville, Town of Mooresville or Town of Troutman attempt to annex property.

During Monday’s Statesville City Council meeting, seven council members called McNeely’s legislation an overreach and voted for a resolution opposing HB 1119.

The vote for a resolution came Monday near the conclusion of the meeting.

Council member Trey Robertson cast the lone dissenting vote. He wanted the resolution tabled until after City Manager Ron Smith and Mayor Doug Hendrix meet with McNeely on Friday. He also said he wanted to give Troutman and Mooresville the chance to weigh in on the legislation.

Smith called the bill another example of “Raleigh stepping on Statesville’s toes.”

McNeely, a Republican, represents the 84th District in the N.C. House. The district includes Statesville and northern Iredell County.

The bill would only impact Iredell County. It would change how cities or towns annex property that is outside of their extra-territorial jurisdictions, McNeely said.

If approved by the House and Senate and signed by the governor, the bill would require the Iredell County Board of Commissioners to have a vote on ETJ annexations that would push Iredell-Statesville Schools in the annexed area to 100 percent capacity, McNeely said.

If a request is not approved by the county commissioners, it would be up to the city or developer to pay for the school system to upgrade the schools to increase capacity.

McNeely said this is aimed at giving people outside of city or town limits a voice if nearby property is being annexed.

He said the bill came about as a result of a proposal to build 1,600 homes on Scotts Creek Road.

“That’s as rural as rural can be,” he said.

The development, which was later reduced to 1,200 homes, would have pushed Scotts and Central elementary schools to capacity, McNeely said. Ultimately, the proposed development was not approved.

Neighbors of the proposed development would have had not voice in whether the annexation would have been approved, McNeely said.

By involving the county commissioners, non-city residents could have input.

McNeely stressed this bill only applies to residential development and not commercial. Commercial development, he said, does not impact school capacity.

McNeely said it is also aimed at preventing erosion of farmland via annexation.

“We are No. 2 in the state in farmland erosion,” he said.

Smith said the city only annexes land if the property owner requests it.

City council members expressed several concerns about the bill.

“It’s a terrible bill, and it’s poorly written,” Mayor Pro Tem David Jones said.

Jones said he was also bothered by the fact that the bill only applies to Iredell County. 

McNeely explained that he initially introduced the bill to apply statewide but representatives of other jurisdictions were opposed to being included. He then amended the bill to include only Iredell.

Council member Doris Allison also opposed McNeely’s bill

“We’re not going to be back-pedaling for somebody else’s purpose or ego,” she said.