By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer
A public hearing on the annexation of almost 20 acres at Linda Lane and Campground Road that is surrounded by Cabot is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday at the city annex.
To take in the island will require only a vote of the city council.
Although the city council voted in June to postpone annexation of that property and annex all the “islands” at one time. That plan stalled. The council’s public works committee, in response to complaints from neighbors, voted in early October to proceed with the originally planned annexation and take the other areas in later.
The 20-acre island contains 10 acres where a mini-storage facility will be built. The 10 acres borders Krooked Kreek subdivision and residents there have appealed to the city to annex the property so city regulations about setbacks and screening may be applied.
The developer, Preston Robinson, has been amenable to the annexation in the past, but Jimmy Woosley who owns 7.5 acres of the balance of the property has said it is unfair to annex his without annexing the other islands.
The annexation will be the first inrecent history if not the first ever to be annexed over the objections of the property owners.
By state law, cities may annex an area that is surrounded on all sides without the permission of the people there.
Cities may also take territory through a petition of the property owners who want to be annexed and through elections where people in the area to be annexed and city residents get to vote on it.
In Cabot, most annexations have been through petitions by landowners with plans to build subdivisions who want those subdivisions located inside city limits for the utilities, and fire and police protection.
The Woosley property is on Linda Lane off Campground Road. There are two more located on the other side of Campground on Diederich Lane as well as two houses in front of Silver Streak subdivision, one house on First Street and the city sewer ponds.
Only the Cabot Water and Wastewater Commission has said annexation is acceptable.
The pubic works committee said in October that it was necessary to go against the original council decision to take in all the islands at one time, but that the others would be annexed as soon as possible.
