HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) - Lamar County supervisors are giving notice that they will try to block Hattiesburg’s annexation in parts of their county.
The proposed annexation covers two locations in Lamar County: part of the commercial corridor on U.S. 98 and an area just north of Newpointe Shopping Center.
A portion of U.S. 49 north of the current city limits in Forrest County is also part of the annexation plan, the Hattiesburg American reported (https://hatne.ws/1r6N10W).
On Thursday, the Lamar County Board of Supervisors and attorneys Perry Phillips and Tim C. Holleman filed a Notice of Appeal in Lamar County Circuit Court opposing the annexation, which was proposed in an ordinance at an April 19 Hattiesburg City Council meeting.
“There’s a couple of points that we’re challenging their ordinance on,” Lamar County Administrator Jody Waits said. “We think that they didn’t discuss the annexation in open session - that they went into executive session - and that may be a violation of the Open Meetings Act.
“So, the Board of Supervisors sought legal counsel about how to oppose annexation, and legal counsel suggested the first step would be to look at the process and that we should challenge that first. And it looks like some steps were not followed properly.”
Ridgeland attorney John Scanlon, representing Hattiesburg, said after the April 19 meeting that Hattiesburg officials will file the ordinance in chancery court in the coming weeks. A judge will have the option to grant all or part of the annexation.
“He or she will do so making a determination as to whether or not the ordinance is reasonable - whether it’s reasonable for Hattiesburg to expand these boundaries to include these areas,” Scanlon said.
Hattiesburg’s annexation of commercial areas along U.S. 98 in Lamar County is a long-standing source of conflict. Legislators passed a law this year seeking to make expansion by the city more difficult, limiting city authority if it annexes only businesses and not 50 percent of residents in a census block. If that number isn’t reached, the city wouldn’t take control of zoning and subdivision regulations, leaving that authority with the county board of supervisors.
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Information from: The Hattiesburg American, https://www.hattiesburgamerican.com
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