Growing Towns and Cities - Good or Bad? (Chattanooga, Murfreesboro: crime, neighborhoods)

[TomNashville]

Also... to answer your other questions, the city council basically votes to annex a particular area (I think.) The residents of that area have no say in it, as the annexation reserves have already been made through agreements between the cities. At least in Tennessee, annexations cannot cross county lines; Memphis may annex as far as it wants in eastern Shelby County but cannot annex anything in Fayette County.

The benefits for the city are taxes; the benefits for the residents are... I'll get back to you on that. City services are one benefit, but in the case of areas being annexed by Memphis the "services" provided by the city are probably not going to be an improvement over county services. The school system is night-and-day worse, which is a big reason that residents hate being annexed by Memphis.

[Tek_Freek]

Originally Posted by LauraC

How does Tennessee annexation happen? Do the residents of the town being taken over by the larger city/town get to vote on it or does the big city/town just come in and take it? What would be the benefit for either place? Can it only happen within a county or do these takeovers cross county lines? I was recently reading about one in western North Carolina.

I'm familiar with gerrymandering for political gain but is that the reason for these annexations?

And while I'm on that subject does anyone know why a small piece of Oak Ridge is in Roane County when most of Oak Ridge is in Anderson County?

Annexation is on a rampage around here. It doesn't recognize county lines or cities, the residents in the annexed area have virtually no say in it, and are usually worse off after. One area was promised that they would get to keep the street names. That lasted until the fire and police departments complained. Bye-bye street names.

As for Oak Ridge. That can happen through growth. The city I live in grew out of one county and into another, well actually two others. It is now in three counties.

[LivingLikeAGradStudent]

Many cities in Texas are in multiple counties. There are shopping centers in multiple cities and counties.

[Tyler Lund]

Originally Posted by TomNashville

Also... to answer your other questions, the city council basically votes to annex a particular area (I think.) The residents of that area have no say in it, as the annexation reserves have already been made through agreements between the cities. At least in Tennessee, annexations cannot cross county lines; Memphis may annex as far as it wants in eastern Shelby County but cannot annex anything in Fayette County.

The benefits for the city are taxes; the benefits for the residents are... I'll get back to you on that. City services are one benefit, but in the case of areas being annexed by Memphis the "services" provided by the city are probably not going to be an improvement over county services. The school system is night-and-day worse, which is a big reason that residents hate being annexed by Memphis.

Tullahoma lies in 2 different counties and the Urban Growth Boundries include annexation in both Coffee and Franklin Counties. The majority of Tullahoma's population lies in Coffee County which is about 19,000 and about 2,000 of our poulation live in Franklin County all in all we have 2007 estimates at 21,400 people in the city limits of Tullahoma

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by TomNashville

A city may annex part of its reserve area at any time, but as far as I know they must then provide city services (police, fire, etc.) to that area. The major motive is taxes; with Memphis's residents fleeing to the suburbs Memphis annexes areas in order to get more tax money as many of the residents of Cordova (which is within Memphis's annexation reserve) are rather well-off.

Oh, that makes sense - more taxes. I was thinking some local political gain was behind it. I never heard of annexation until I read the North Carolina story where Asheville is/was (not sure if it happened yet) making a grab for one of its small surrounding towns. An annexation reserve - is that type of information made known to people when they buy homes in those potentially-annexed Tennessee towns? I'm not buying a home, just curious if people are required to be informed of the potential to be annexed when they buy a house and what that could mean to them tax-wise..

[LauraC]

Annexation is on a rampage around here. It doesn't recognize county lines or cities, the residents in the annexed area have virtually no say in it, and are usually worse off after. One area was promised that they would get to keep the street names. That lasted until the fire and police departments complained. Bye-bye street names.

Why would the fire and police department care about the street names? Were they duplicated in another part of town? I could see that being a matter of life or death if they went to, the wrong Elm St, for example, during an emergency call. If that's the reason, I would have to side with the police/fire department.


As for Oak Ridge. That can happen through growth. The city I live in grew out of one county and into another, well actually two others. It is now in three counties.

That has to be confusing.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by LauraC

Annexation is on a rampage around here. It doesn't recognize county lines or cities, the residents in the annexed area have virtually no say in it, and are usually worse off after. One area was promised that they would get to keep the street names. That lasted until the fire and police departments complained. Bye-bye street names.

Why would the fire and police department care about the street names? Were they duplicated in another part of town? I could see that being a matter of life or death if they went to, the wrong Elm St, for example, during an emergency call. If that's the reason, I would have to side with the police/fire department.


As for Oak Ridge. That can happen through growth. The city I live in grew out of one county and into another, well actually two others. It is now in three counties.

That has to be confusing.

Oak Ridge was created by the federal government during WW2. Most of Oak Ridge today is still owned by the federal government and cannot be developed. I suspect the reason Oak Ridge spills into Roane County is because that was a decision made by the feds when Oak Ridge was created as a secret city to develop the atomic bomb.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by Tyler Lund

Tullahoma lies in 2 different counties and the Urban Growth Boundries include annexation in both Coffee and Franklin Counties. The majority of Tullahoma's population lies in Coffee County which is about 19,000 and about 2,000 of our poulation live in Franklin County all in all we have 2007 estimates at 21,400 people in the city limits of Tullahoma

2007 estimates? It's not even the end of 2006 yet. 2005 Census estimates for Tullahoma are 18,909, and in 2000 Tullahoma had 17,994--not much growth going on there. And with only 73 new homes built in Tullahoma in 2005, I guess the additional growth is from annexations?

By the way, as I understand it (and I could easily be wrong) no city in Tennessee can cover more than 1/3 of the land area of the county in which it's located. This is one reason Memphis will be able to annex only so much more land before it'll be doomed.

Nashville and Lynchburg (home of Jack Daniels!) are the only two metropolitan forms of government in Tennessee, meaning those cities technically ceased to exist, and they merged with their respective counties. The city gives up its municipal charter and essentially hands over its government to the county.

[Tek_Freek]

Originally Posted by LauraC

Why would the fire and police department care about the street names? Were they duplicated in another part of town? I could see that being a matter of life or death if they went to, the wrong Elm St, for example, during an emergency call. If that's the reason, I would have to side with the police/fire department.

The street names in the acquired area did not match the names in the existing area. If you were on S 123rd Avenue in the original grid and drove to the annexed area it might be Plainview Drive. Thus the confusion that led to the forced street name changes.

Originally Posted by LauraC

As for Oak Ridge. That can happen through growth. The city I live in grew out of one county and into another, well actually two others. It is now in three counties.

That has to be confusing.

Actually, being in three counties doesn't affect the average person. It's the city and county entities that have to deal with the mess left behind. Gets real interesting during some of the meetings when the counties are involved.

I'd estimate that 90% of the people that drive across the county line (1/2 block from us) don't even know they just changed counties.

[Tyler Lund]

Originally Posted by JMT

2007 estimates? It's not even the end of 2006 yet. 2005 Census estimates for Tullahoma are 18,909, and in 2000 Tullahoma had 17,994--not much growth going on there. And with only 73 new homes built in Tullahoma in 2005, I guess the additional growth is from annexations?

By the way, as I understand it (and I could easily be wrong) no city in Tennessee can cover more than 1/3 of the land area of the county in which it's located. This is one reason Memphis will be able to annex only so much more land before it'll be doomed.

Nashville and Lynchburg (home of Jack Daniels!) are the only two metropolitan forms of government in Tennessee, meaning those cities technically ceased to exist, and they merged with their respective counties. The city gives up its municipal charter and essentially hands over its government to the county.

Yes even though 2006 is yet over the projected growth in Tullahoma over the next couple of years including Industrial, Commercial, and Residential is planned. Over the next year we are widening a major road (Ceader Ln) for commercial and Industrial development. Their are plans for the old Worth Manufactoring building to be developed into a Stripmall. THe city has talked over the past several years about Downtown revitillization so they will probably start that next year. So by the year end of 2007 we should have a little over 21,000 people. As for the annexation I am not sure, I know our 20 year Urban Growth Plan which is divided into quadrants allows us to annex any where to certain area. The town of Manchester (9,000) which is the County seat of Coffee sit centered in our county. I am not sure what their growth plans are but I do know AEDC (Arnold Engineerin Development Center USAF) puts a halt on all our annexation in coffee because they own so much land in CC.