Jacumin withdraws bill to incorporate Village of Lake James

Credit: Jennifer Frew | The News Herald

Lake James, as seen from Harbor View Terrace in East Shores, looking toward SouthPointe

By: Sharon McBrayer | Morganton News Herald
Published: August 05, 2009

Raleigh, NC --

The effort to incorporate a proposed village of Lake James is dead, at least for this year. With the state Senate expected to go home on Friday, Sen. Jim Jacumin, R-Burke/Caldwell, sent a note to chairs of the finance committee on Wednesday and asked that the bill he sponsored, Senate Bill 538, be withdrawn from consideration.
Jacumin said the senators are up against a deadline and were simply out of time and he didn't feel like the bill needed to be rushed.
Legislators work part-time. This session, prolonged by disagreements about the state budget, is one of only six since 1965 that extended into August or later.
Jacumin said he plans to re-introduce the bill in the legislature's "short" session that starts in January.
He introduced the bill in March shortly before the current session's filing deadline. Senate Bill 538 has sat in the Senate Finance Committee since then, because the legislature customarily does not act on incorporation bills before it receives a recommendation from the Joint Legislative Commission on Municipal Incorporation.
The commissioners on July 29 voted not to recommend incorporation of the village of Lake James. They said the reason for the negative recommendation was that the boundaries of the proposed village are not contiguous.
The commission advises the state legislature on the creation of new towns and cities in North Carolina.
After the vote, proponents of the incorporation said they hoped to move ahead and keep fighting.
Glenn Lloyd, one of the people who opposed the incorporation, said "of course" he and others who opposed it are pleased that Jacumin withdrew the bill. It was the proper thing to do, he said.
There was a lot of opposition to the incorporation, according to Lloyd. In addition to being discontinguous, he said, the boundaries were "exploitative."
The proposed boundaries at some places extend less than few hundred feet from the lakeshore. The proposed village also includes the 1780 district with acres of vacant lots awaiting development. Crescent Resources has said it does not want 1780 in the village.
Village supporter Howard Morgan said he and other proponents will keep trying to incorporate the lakeside community.
He said the group knew last week there wouldn't be enough time left in this legislative session to get the bill through the General Assembly.
He said they'll have to wait and see what happens next year when the General Assembly convenes its short session.
If necessary, Morgan said, they'll wait until 2012.
He said it's not unusual for an incorporation to take a while. He said he knows of other municipalities where incorporation took three or four years.
In July a bill to incorporate the town of Rougement near Durham failed for the third time since 2005.

Jacumin withdraws bill to incorporate Village of Lake James

Share This:

More from this channel:

Reader Comments

Deal of the Day

Most Popular

More Ways to Connect

Reader Photos» Browse More

Things to Do