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Commission needs more info on LJV

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By Sharon McBrayer | The News Herald

Published: June 18, 2009

Morganton - The Joint Legislative Commission on Municipal Incorporations made no decision about a proposed incorporation around Lake James on Wednesday.
Gayle L. Moses, staff attorney for the commission, said in an e-mail to The News Herald that the commission "discussed the petition further" and decided that it would be helpful to have a public hearing.
The public hearing, Moses said, is to hear from the residents in the area, both within and outside of the boundaries of the proposed Village of Lake James.
A time and place for the hearing has yet to be set.
Locals for and against the issue agreed on Thursday that Table Rock Middle School would be a good choice.
They also agreed if a public hearing on a proposed incorporation of Swannanoa is grouped with the Lake James issue, it could be held somewhere between the two areas.
One question that was on the commission's agenda on Wednesday was whether the proposed boundaries are contiguous.
A decision on that was not made, with the commission saying it needs written arguments from both sides on the contiguous question.
Howard Morgan, co-chair of the Task Force on the Incorporation of the Village of Lake James, said on Thursday that his side believes the boundaries are contiguous because the lake is an impoundment for a public service — Duke Energy, which manages the lake.
State statute 160A-53, which defines "contiguous," says, in part, that the area should either join directly on the boundary or can be separated by a street, right-of-way, creek or river, railroad or other public service corporation.
It's "the other public service corporation" that Morgan believes they can make an argument for boundaries being contiguous.
Jim Powers, a Lake James resident who opposes incorporation, said the boundaries aren't contiguous because Duke Energy owns the lake bed and a strip of land around the lake when it is less than 100 percent full.
In addition to residents in the area, the city of Morganton, as well as other municipalities, have spoken out in opposition to incorporation.
In an opinion sent to the commission, Steve Settlemyer, city of Morganton attorney, quotes from David Lawrence's book on annexation law in the state. Lawrence is an attorney with the North Carolina Institute of Government.
Lawrence says in the letter saying, in part, "Property that is separated from the city by a sizeable lake — Lake Norman, for example — will often not be contiguous in any functional sense, and a court might easily decide that the property is not contiguous in a legal sense either."
Opponents argue that the lake separates the communities of South Pointe and East Shores, as well as East Shores and Laurel Ridge. It also, they argue, separates Mallard Point and the 1780 communities.
State Rep. Mitch Gillespie, who represents portions of Burke and all of McDowell counties, was at the meeting on Wednesday night and said commission staff will make recommendations after getting expert opinion from Lawrence.
The commission advises the General Assembly on the creation of new towns and cities.