Opening the spigot
On Tuesday morning, City Manager Ed Kitchen rolled out his proposed changes to the city's water and sewer extension policy. (Link to our story here.)
"Ahh, Matt," you might be thinking. "Why do you have to bore us with minutiae about water lines? I'm going to go read some quasi-dirty humor over at Mr. Sun instead."
Well, before you do that, stay with me. Where the water lines go shapes where the city grows. Kitchen wants to open up a big area of land for water service - and therefore heavy development - along I-40/85 all the way to Rock Creek Center.
But there's always a catch. Right now, anyone who wants city water who lives outside the city has to agree to be annexed into the city at some future date. But under the new rules, developers getting water would also have to follow the city's development regulations, everything from the comp plan to, yes, restrictions on billboards.
You may remember this from January:
"The council voted 5-4 Tuesday night not to tie city development standards, including a ban on billboards along the highway, to requests by property owners to extend city water and sewer service... Proponents of the city's billboard ban sought the change Tuesday so property owners would be forced to respect the city's ban if they wanted water lines extended to their land."
If you want to read all the details, we've scanned in a memo from Kitchen that includes a draft copy of the policy. Also included is a handy map that shows the new areas the city will consider serving.
Comments (3)
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And services to the "Heart of the Triad" (GSO, WS, Kernersville) are being left to..?
So anyone who wants service has to agree to be annexed "at some point in the future"? Any definition of 'future' - 100-200 years OK?
Shouldn't the city annex areas currently served before extending services/annexing?
Posted on June 30, 2005 8:21 AM
I can't speak for who would provide utilities for the "Heart of the Triad" project. As for your other questions, a non-city property owner must file a "petition for annexation" in order to get water service. It may take a few years, though, before the city acts on that petition.
Every two months or so, the city will bring in a few places here and there that signed petitions years back. The city does so when they think it makes financial and planning sense to provide all the other city services other than water and sewer. For instance, if there's just a small subdivision with a petition but no others around it, it doesn't make sense for the city to have a fire station out there just for that and send garbage trucks, etc. But when enough landowners sign petitions - a critical mass - then the city will go ahead and annex.
Posted on June 30, 2005 9:18 AM
Whan you look at the map, you see a gaping hole around the airport. The Cardinal has been there for 20+ years and has yet to be annexed.
Posted on June 30, 2005 11:56 AM