RALEIGH
Legislation is being shelved that would have imposed new restrictions on how North Carolina municipalities annex people against their will, a state senator said yesterday.
Involuntary annexation has riled many North Carolinians, including in Fayetteville. Cities and towns can take in land without permission from the landowners. The policy drew much attention in the mid-2000s when Fayetteville annexed 46,000 people.
The state House last year approved and sent to the Senate numerous changes to the annexation law, including an opportunity for residents of an area under consideration for annexation to vote on whether to join the city.
Sen. David Hoyle of Gaston County said he put a hold on the proposed annexation revisions. As chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, he can push or block legislation.
He said that neither the cities, which want no annexation changes, nor annexation foes like the bill that came out of the House.
The matter needs to be examined more closely, Hoyle said, and the legislature has little time for that this summer. The legislature this year is in a "short session" of two to three months, mostly intended to adjust the state's budget for the upcoming year.
Next year, the legislature will have its long session. Hoyle said that will provide more time for legislators to consider how to change the annexation law. The long session generally runs six to seven months.
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