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Lexington council votes 'no' on store's plea to be annexed
Owners wanted to sell alcohol; officials say that wasn't a factor in decision
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Published: June 23, 2009
LEXINGTON
County residents blasted Lexington city officials last year for trying to annex them and even filed a lawsuit about it, saying it was unfair and that they didn't want to pay city property taxes.
But Kevin Yates and Christie Nix have spent the past year petitioning the city of Lexington to annex Spartan Express, the convenience store they own that's just south of Lexington's city limits.
Lexington City Council last night voted 6-0 to leave the store in the county, at least for now.
"Just disappointed," Yates said after the vote. He declined to comment further.
Council members Becky Klass and Edward Ward were not at last night's meeting.
Yates and Nix wanted their convenience store in the city so they could sell alcohol, because Davidson is a dry county. They submitted their petition through their attorneys last September, but city officials opposed the idea. The city's planning board recommended denial.
City officials said that the store was in a rural part of the county and that it would cost too much to provide services such as water and sewer. They also didn't want to open up a floodgate of petitions from other convenience-store owners who wanted in the city so they could sell alcohol, too.
"It's nothing against the business," City Manager John Gray said last week. "A lot of it is a practical matter."
Tammy Kepley, the city's director of community development, told the city council last night that city officials had never tagged the area where the store is as a place the city wanted to annex. And though Yates and Nix had agreed to waive certain services such as sewer, Kepley said that the city was required to provide those services under state law.
City officials said that alcohol wasn't the reason they were against the petition. They opposed the petition because the store is in an area that's not primed for growth.
Gray said that the city would consider a satellite annexation for an industrial park or for a new company promising a large number of jobs, which could prompt development such as subdivisions.
But the convenience store isn't likely to do that, Gray said.
"It's not going to be an economic-development creator on its own," he said. "It doesn't bother me that people drink. That's not the basis on which the city can make this particular decision."
Paul Mitchell, one of the attorneys representing the convenience-store owners, said that city officials' reasons for not annexing the store simply don't hold up to scrutiny.
"There's not a single lot between this property and Jimmy's BBQ that looks like country," he said. "It doesn't look country because it isn't country."
Mitchell said that the convenience store, if it could sell alcohol, could provide about $85,000 a year in sales tax.
He also reminded them of the controversial annexation that city-council members approved last year.
"When you undertook the long road of involuntarily annexing those folks, I knew what you were up against," said Mitchell, who is also the attorney for the city of Thomasville. "If you could stand up to those forces, surely you can stand up to yourselves."
Larry Beck, the mayor pro tem, said he's willing to go against the planning board if he disagrees with it. But in this case, he happened to agree, he said, before making a motion to deny the petition.
Council member Wayne Alley said that the issue is a lot more complicated than it seems.
"It's difficult to go against the city attorney, the planning board and department heads," he said.
■ Michael Hewlett can be reached at 727-7326 or at mhewlett@wsjournal.com.
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