By Craig Alea
Choice: Chocolate or vanilla? Boxers or briefs?
Silently stand around twiddling my thumbs while my property is being forcibly annexed by the City of Murfreesboro to the tune of about $500?600 per year, or try to do something about it?
As for me, I’ll choose chocolate. But I wish I had a choice about being annexed. That’s why I chose the word “forcibly.”
So, my fellow neighbors are preparing for a possible fight against the City of Murfreesboro. Not because I want to fight, but because it may be the only option I have left. If the city stretches it’s boundaries to include our land, we’ll file a lawsuit. One was just filed on Aug. 10; so this would be the second one within a month.
See, I can’t really vote on anything the city chooses to do, because I am not included in the citizenry of Murfreesboro, although I spend most of my money here. I live in the Blackman Community, where I purchased a 30-year-old house two years ago, a house that is in an established neighborhood. The city has moved in, around, on top, and under me in their acquisition from the “urban growth boundary” and now I am about to be consumed by the city . . . but not by choice . . . well, at least not by my choice, or the other 967 property owners, because we don’t “have a say.”
The facts: Rowland & Rowland Development has purchased land and has requested annexation from the City of Murfreesboro. They want sewer access. The City wants to annex them, granting their request. Cool. Accommodating. Reasonable. In that annexation, everybody wins.
So, the City decides to create a package deal and annex 967 established homes in one fell swoop. An overwhelming percentage of these property owners don’t want to be annexed into the City. The City has three public hearings. I went to all of them, spoke at two of them. Even my six-year-old daughter told them she likes things as they are.
As of presstime, the property owners hope the City grants our request. We will see, as the vote was on Aug. 23. Probably not going to happen, though.
The City will “give us” a plan of services that we simply don’t need and don’t want. I’m not disappointed with the quality of those services provided: Murfreesboro Police, Murfreesboro Fire and garbage pickup on a weekly basis. I know those services, and those who work for those services, do a good job. But so does the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department, the Rutherford County Rescue Squad and our local volunteer firefighters. And I gladly pay a little bit a month to have my trash (be it branches, garbage, a huge cement block or about anything else I’ve ever asked of them) picked up by a private local company . . . twice a week. Many of my neighbors just haul their trash to the dump or burn it appropriately.
I chose to live here with all my “inadequate” services. In fact, when I was searching on the MLS services when looking for a home, I put in the words “septic tank,” knowing that there would be a good chance that I would find a home that was outside the city limits (so to speak) and enjoy a bigger yard, and just the chance that I may be able to look up and see some stars at night instead of three bright street lamps diluting my view.
Oh, yeah, I mentioned “septic tank.” Well, my area will not be getting any access to the sanitary sewer system. Nope, not at all, ever. Now that might make the $500?600 tax increase for me a little more palatable.
No sewer? Forget it. Not interested in your annexation plans. I like things the way they are. I would have to adjust some things, but I could pay the burden of the taxes without receiving comparable benefits that most Murfreesboro citizens receive. Of course, since I’ve chosen to live outside the city limits, I say, “Let me choose to be annexed.” Funny how I have the choice to request annexation, just not the choice to avoid it. There are over 900 other families that are coincidently saying the same thing as I am saying, “Let us choose to be annexed, don’t force it on us!” Doesn’t that sound like “taxation without representation” to you as well?
Back to Choice. Wish I had one. Hope that my request will be granted . . . that our neighborhoods will not be annexed. But that won’t happen. That would not be cool. Not at all accommodating. Not at all reasonable. Everybody loses . . . and we, the affected property owners, will have to sue the city. Thankfully, that is a choice we have. Another lawsuit just like the one filed on Aug. 10 by another group that faced the same issue and was annexed anyway. Maybe the city didn’t hear them, or me, or you. Now that annexation is being held up due to the lawsuit, although the free trash cans have already been delivered to those forcibly annexed residents.
Lawsuits cost us all money?me, as a plaintiff and you, as a resident of the City of Murfreesboro, whose legal team will use money from the taxes you pay to defend themselves for the ensuing legal battles they have chosen to accept. Simply because the city chooses not to respect our simple wishes. Yesterday, Aug. 23, the decision will probably be made for us by the City.
Hope they chose the right thing to do. We’ll see. I’ll post the decision on at DoNotAnnexUs.com.
Choice.
Chocolate.
And not being annexed.
Oh yeah . . . and boxers.
donotannexus@comcast.net
