Politics

Commissioners table latest effort to outlaw city annexations

County Commission Chair Bill Lapsley cites the city’s eastward growth along South Allen Road and Upward Road as an example of urban sprawl, one reason he favors a bill in the state Legislature barring the city from requiring developments that need sewer service to petition for annexation. One such development is the Summit at Hendersonville apartments between South Allen Road and I-26.

By Bill Moss, Published: April 2, 2025

Henderson County and the city of Hendersonville are either edging toward a new escalation in their decades-long war over water and sewer service or tilting instead toward settlement negotiations.

The Board of Commissioners appeared to be deadlocked 2-2 on a resolution in support of a bill in the state Legislature that would bar the city from requiring annexation in order to extend sewer service beyond its current boundaries.

Elections have consequences. When board Chair Bill Lapsley introduced the resolution on March 19, two new commissioners who defeated strong anti-city incumbents in the Republican primary last May pushed back. They favored renewed negotiations with Hendersonville officials to work out a compromise.

“My depth of experience with water and sewer is nothing compared to Chairman Lapsley, but I’ve had a few years’ experience on the water and sewer advisory board and I have always appreciated the transparency, the integrity and just the wonderful effort that always goes into their capital improvement plans,” said Sheila Franklin, who was Fletcher’s appointee to the joint city-county water and sewer committee before her election to the Board of Commissioners.

“I’ve always been accused of having rose-colored glasses on anyway … but I would prefer to table this and make a more proactive effort to nail down the growth ring, nail down what we want that to look like,” she added.

City Manager John Connet spoke against the proposed state law while leaving the door open for talks.

“I would be remiss if I didn’t say that adoption of any resolution impacting our ability to do what is legally our authority to do may not be well received by the City Council,” he told commissioners. “At the same time, we stand by and welcome the opportunity to continue to negotiate with the county commission, because we’re better together than we are separate.”

To which Jay Egolf, the other new commissioner, responded: “Amen to that.”

Lapsley and Commissioner Michael Edney relented, voting in favor of Franklin’s motion to table the resolution.

‘They’re requesting a municipal service’

Similar bills restricting the city’s ability to require annexation for sewer service have been filed at least twice before, at the request of the Board of Commissioners, including a year ago.

Connet said in an interview before the March 19 Board of Commissioners meeting that the city had on numerous occasions acceded to county demands when it comes to water and sewer extensions into the unincorporated area. The City Council, however, opposes Senate Bill 69, the state legislation requested by the county and sponsored by Sen.Tim Moffitt.

“Regardless of our overtures, the county has again requested this bill that would basically restrict our annexation authority, which is clearly there under statutes,” Connet said.

“Clearly we have the ability to establish a policy to require annexation for extension of utilities, in our case, sewer service. If you want sewer service you have to at least submit a petition for annexation,” he said, although in some cases the city chooses not to annex. “They’re requesting a municipal service. This is an urban service, and they have a choice to develop without sewer” in a lower-density use that could be served by a septic system.

The city also compensates rural fire departments for the loss of property tax money when it annexes land, Connet pointed out, citing that as another example of the city’s openness to county commissioners’ requests.

“General statutes require us to compensate them for any debt that the fire department may have,” he said. “We've gone above and beyond that. We’ve basically paid them for five years of lost revenue for the property that’s being annexed.”

City cites 36 instances of cooperation  

Opening last month’s discussion about the next steps in implementing the county’s newly adopted comprehensive land-use plan, Lapsley presented two resolutions — the one on city sewer service and another opposing a provision inserted into the state budget last year that restricted local government’s ability downzone property.

The downzoning law bars cities and counties from initiating a land-use change to a lower-density category unless all property owners affected consent. The prohibition, Lapsley said, limits the county’s ability to legislate through the comp plan the highest priorities expressed by citizens — preserving the county’s rural character and protecting farmland from high-density development. Commissioners unanimously endorsed the resolution to repeal the downzoning law.

Lapsley said during last month’s meeting that the city’s annexation-for-sewer service policy also restricts the county’s ability to control urban sprawl.

“In recent years, growth of high density development into the unincorporated areas of the county has clearly been a byproduct of the city’s satellite annexation program,” Lapsley said, citing land on Spartanburg Highway, Upward Road and South Allen Road. “These annexations have brought high-density residential, commercial and industrial development to large land areas that have been for generations productive farmland. This annexation program completely nullifies any zoning or land development limitations or farmland preservation efforts adopted by the county in the areas of its jurisdiction.”

(An industrial zoning that Lapsley failed to mention was the joint city-county agreement in 2020 to develop an old apple orchard into the 41-acre Garrison Industrial Park, which became the home of the Jabil Inc. plant.)

A year ago, when Moffitt filed the same bill to kill the annexation policy, the City Council responded with a 600-word response citing 36 instances in which the city met requests or demands from the county on water and sewer service and economic development.

Commissioner Edney acknowledged at the tail end of last month’s discussion that the city had taken steps to meet the county’s demands.

“You’ve come part way over the last 20 years or 30 years,” he said at the March 19 meeting. “You’re equalizing water (rates), which I think is great. You’ve agreed to compensate the fire departments — to some extent, not as much as I’d like. We’ve got basically a new board here, and you’ve got a new board, so I’m open to some discussions as we go forward, regardless of what we do here.”