Cabarrus Cheap Seats

Kannapolis probably won’t get the land acquisition rights that it wanted. This past week, Representative Barnhart said that he wouldn’t support a measure sponsored by Senator Hartsell at the behest of Kannapolis officials expanding annexation rights for the City of Kannapolis. Bills limited to local interests usually don’t go anywhere without the unanimous consent of the delegation from that area. So, Kannapolis won’t be able to annex more than three miles out during any one annexation period with the land needing to be contiguous to the city limits…and so on.

I’m sure that there are a variety of opinions among the public varying from “There should be an Odell, NC” to “Kannapolis’ County Line Manifest Destiny plans are a good idea”. The issue lies more in how the debate took place and what is next for the community. Now, I’m no expert in NC State law, annexation history, etc. However, this is what I’m taking away from the whole thing: this was a classic lesson in how not to handle a public policy dilemma; and the repercussions will affect more than Kannapolis.

To fully understand this, it’s necessary to do a run-down of all of the players involved.

Land Owners and Real-Estate Developers - The area roughly bounded by State Highway 73 to the South, Odell School Road to the East, and the County Line in the North and West is surrounded by area of strong growth. The State has plans to widen and develop State Highway 73 to handle the greater traffic. All of that has made the area much more desirable for development - increasing land values and catching the eye of developers. Land owners insist that they have a right to profit from the land that they own.

The Odell Incorporation Movement - This movement was apparently started in response to developers eyeing the land to the west of Kannapolis in the aforementioned area and Kannapolis’ plan to annex it. They want to create a community that would be “rural” and, um, well, not in Kannapolis.

The Kannapolis City Council - Kannapolis has been responding to the growth that the area has experienced over the past decade by working out deals with local representatives and compromises with the other area governments to determine how help manage the area’s growth. The deal germane to this discussion was that the currently unincorporated parts of Western Cabarrus County would be annexed by Concord and Kannapolis north and west of Highway 73, respectively. Kannapolis even started developing infrastructure (water lines) in these areas. Kannapolis has an interest in annexing the land; because of the increase in tax base that development would give it and the fact that densely-populated areas usually require city services.

Our Representatives in Raleigh - The County Commission and the cities often have to go to Raleigh to have certain state laws reconfigured. As mentioned before, if the entire local delegation doesn’t back a measure, it usually doesn’t go anywhere. So, usually, the local governments try to work with the representatives and show they have popular support for certain actions. For example, one of the latest measures was the lifting of a growth cap allowing for annexation of land that doesn’t immediately border a city (also known as “non-contiguous”). The issue here was Lake Howell acting as a barrier to Kannapolis’ westward movement.

The Cabarrus County Commissioners - The area of interest is currently unincorporated, putting it under the jurisdiction of the Cabarrus County Commissioners. The Planning and Zoning board has rejected proposals from three developers to put in developments in the Odell area and the County Commission has backed them up. The latest of the efforts were thwarted by the Cabarrus County Commissioners recently, largely in response to the outcry of the Odell residents. Cabarrus County claims that there are inadequate schools in the area. Developers are now taking the County to court and could possibly endanger an adequate facilities fee that is applied to new development to offset school construction costs. County Commissioner Bob Carruth was looking for a compromise to fend off this lawsuit while simultaneously satisfying the demands of the Odell annexation crowd.

Harold Smith - Ah, yes, what would a “Politics in an Odd-Numbered Year” post be without the illustrious Harold Smith. He’s been in vocal support of the Odell community, apparently because they are trying to frustrate the efforts of the Kannapolis City Council. Here’s his take on the whole situation.

July 10, 2005: No More Annexation by Kannapolis
No more annexation by the City of Kannapolis until it recovers financially from the annexations since 1999. More annexations will result in increases in property taxes and continued increases in water and sewer bills.
Read article in today’s (7-10-05) Independent Tribune, “Growth Cap Waived for Kannapolis.” contact your Kannapolis City Council and voice your opposition to anymore annexation until the City recovers financially and reduces the Water and Sewer Fund Debt. “Don’t give in to their denial of any financial problems.”

Now that all of the chess pieces have been put into place, let’s take a look at the recent play. Odell residents pushed the Cabarrus County Commission last month to reject the proposed Wellington Chase development. The County Commission complied and rezoned the area as “Rural”. Under the previous County Commission leadership, the Commissioners never rejected a development regardless of public pressure or the assessment of the school adequacy. This new leadership obviously responds to both. This prompted Kannapolis to consider the annexation of the area, which would allow the development; because Kannapolis would be able to grant development rights. However, annexing the area of interest would require permission from Raleigh, because the area falls just outside of the three-mile annexation limit. Representative Barnhart was reluctant to support the measure as it stood. Supporting the measure would have clobbered the efforts of the vocal Odell community. This left a window of compromise.

From here, there’s an intersting article in the Tuesday, July 14, 2005 Independent Tribune - “Kannapolis making push for growth waiver, Odell residents opposed”. This article isn’t on-line. You’re stuck taking my word for it.

Representative Barnhart reluctance gave each of the interested parties a bargaining chip. Getting his vote was key to getting the annexation rights. Right now, the County possesses a large legal liability for deviating from the development policy “by the developers, of the developers, and for the developers” that shaped many of the decisions of the County Commission until recently. So, they’d like to see this just get resolved somehow. The City of Kannapolis has made some infrastructure investments it wants to recoup and development would lead to a nice tax base. Land owners and developers in that area would like to start making money on their investments. If a compromise could have been worked out between the County Commissioners, the City of Kannapolis, the County Delegation, the Developers, and the Odell Community it was possible that everyone could get a piece of what they wanted and avoid nasty lawsuits. Bob Carruth pushed for such a compromise, largely because it’s the county that would be the defendant in those nasty lawsuits.

You’ll notice that the only group with no motivation for a compromise is the Odell community. Also, it could be argued that Harold Smith has something to gain from all the hubbub. For this compromise to work, it would require that the folks from the Odell movement give a little and at least sit down and talk. Most reasonable people could see a window for compromise in this situation. It would have shown the community as a whole that there are grown-ups in this county who are willing to set aside differences and keep the whole community in mind.

Well, that’s what could have happened. Here’s the end result. Kannapolis officials stated that they have tried repeatedly to sit down with people from Odell incorporation movement. In the July 14 article Marrlyn Burns stated, “The residents of Odell have not been approached with any proposals on a compromise, nor will we compromise when it comes to annexation”. Filtering out the Political Correctness - it sounds a little like this, “Huh? What are you talking about? Nobody has called me. Well, it doesn’t matter - we’re not going to give anybody anything anyway; because we don’t have to” Representative Barnhart had no reason to change his stance, because nobody else was going anywhere. Issue dead.

What does all this mean? Well, Kannapolis gets the opportunity to figure out how they are going to recoup the investment in utilities that sits in the future city of Odell, NC. The land owners and developers get their day in court with a long pro-development precedent behind them. The County gets back to the business of being a defendant, a role it was more accustomed to under the past leadership. Now the stake are even higher, developers are taking the opportunity to take out the per-lot fee. It was this fee that Harold Smith, Coy Privette, and others of their ilk used to opposed the school bond in 2004, stating it would cover all future school construction in the county. Harold Smith gets to complain about mismanagement of the water fund and infrastructure and his comments will have sharper teeth. The Odell community - they get their way.

In my opinion, the Odell community could have shown they were ready for prime-time by sitting down for a compromise. Being part of a community requires giving, when you don’t have to. The closest analogy is lending neighbors your tools. They aren’t working on your house; but you do it because you’re a neighbor. Odell’s neighbor Kannapolis invested in the utility lines, a good neighbor would have found a way to assure that investment would be returned. Odell’s neighbor Cabarrus County (OK, more of a metaphorical neighbor) took what promises to be a very expensive stand for their sake. Odell had the opportunity to make that stand less expensive - they didn’t budge.

For a while, there was something Capraesque about the whole Odell incorporation stand. A community trying to preserve their history and take charge of their community’s destiny. People who evoked quality-of-life and their children’s education as reasons for their wanting to stop those land-grabbing developers who only cared about the bottom line. Even though “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” didn’t have Jimmy Stewart yelling from a gallery “We’ll see you in Court” or publicly making a cynical, $1 campaign contribution with the sole intent of embarassing County Commissioners, it still had that “Takin’ on City Hall” feel to it. However, this Everyman stand against power started to lose it’s sheen when they started putting down K-Town. I don’t think Frank Capra would have written a protaginist knocking a blue-collar town bearing the brunt of the biggest layoff in state history as being “an undesirable address“. It became hard for me not to believe that their motivation more effete snobbery than civic conservation. It was the news yesterday - that no compromise had been reached - that made it impossible to see the Odell movement as being noble.

Now a really cynical, suspicious individual would look at this whole situation and see something different. First, there’s been massive growth in the county and a growing animosity towards developers - anybody who takes them on is automatically going to get some political support. Politically it would be stupid to not make it easy for them to incorporate. The area the Odell annexation crowd is trying to incorporate is collectively the hottest, undeveloped real estate in Cabarrus County. The City of Kannapolis invested in all of those utilities which just happen to be conveniently located it what could be Odell, NC – at no cost to Odell. The County might have to concede the $4,000 per lot fee in the coming court battle they are fixin’ to fight - making the inevitable development in Odell, NC that much more profitable. Also, the Odell Town Council, not the County or City of Kannapolis, would control development. That would make it much easier to approve developments of any size, shape, or nature; because Odell doesn’t adopt the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) upon incorporation. All that put together, the potential profits from development of an Odell, NC would be huge. Of course, I’m not cynical enough to see that, I’m just a naive, 27-year-old, wide-eyed idealist.

So, will Odell residents continue to look down at their working-class neighbors to the east? Will Kannapolis get any return on their utility investment? Will the County fall on its sword to meet the demands of the Odell community with nothing in return? The answer to those questions could challenge the veracity of the statement made by Marrlyn Burns that their goal is to be “a positive partner with other surrounding municipalities and with Cabarrus County”.