Burlington’s city council has approved a proposed compact with Graham that would allow the larger municipality to annex land right up to Graham’s corporate limits in the hinterland along NC 49 South.
The council formally signed off on this “annexation line of agreement” on Tuesday in order to modify an earlier deal that the two cities approved roughly a year ago in order to demarcate their potential growth areas between Monroe Holt Road and the Great Alamance Creek.
The line’s proposed adjustment, which still needs a nod from Graham’s city council, was prompted by a development proposal which Burlington’s planning department has received from Carla Sevilla of Raleigh-based Glenwood Homes.
According to Burlington’s planning director Jamie Lawson, Sevilla has sought water and sewer services from Burlington to serve a proposed subdivision along Race Track Road. Under Burlington’s development ordinance, these utility connections would be allowed if accompanied by an annexation request from the property owner. Lawson added that such a request would’ve been easy enough to accommodate before Graham absorbed some nearby territory into its limits.
“Initially, the property, which was 80 acres in size, was closer to Burlington’s corporate limits than Graham’s,” the city’s planning director recalled before a state-mandated public hearing on Tuesday. “Subsequently, Graham has annexed property to the east of this area which made their corporate limits closer and made it impossible for us to recommend satellite annexation.”
Under the proposed line of agreement, Burlington would be able to absorb the development’s site despite its current proximity to Graham’s municipal limits. In fact, the larger municipality would have a claim to everything west of this line, which literally hugs Graham’s border for roughly a third of its span between Monroe Holt Road and the Great Alamance Creek.
After an uneventful public hearing on Tuesday, Burlington’s city council voted 4-to-0 in favor of this new line. Abstaining from the vote was councilman Bob Ward, who also doubles as one of Graham’s city attorneys.
Prior to Tuesday’s hearing, Burlington’s own legal counsel David Huffman pointed out that, in order to avoid a potential conflict of interest, Ward had withdrawn from the council’s previous deliberations about the annexation line of agreement with Graham. Huffman deemed the councilman’s recusal to still be in effect, enabling Ward to abstain from Tuesday’s discussion without any additional action from him or the rest of the council.
