The community was swallowed into the city limits in 2005 through involuntary annexation to prepare the entertainment district for the former Randy Parton Theatre and other development.
“They were brought in involuntarily,” Doughtie said this morning. “The people still there are being taxed unfairly.”
The mayor also said, “We haven’t expended a great amount of resources out there.”
Yet the people who still live there are taxed higher than they normally would be if they were living in the city limits and not the entertainment district. One person who lives in a doublewide is paying $3,000 in taxes, Doughtie said. “I think we want to do the right thing.”
City Manager Paul Sabiston said in a recent telephone interview de-annexing Brandy Creek must have legislative approval.
That’s where the city will help, the mayor said, as people who live in the community have already spoken with legislators and council members.
“I think it’s very encouraging,” said Mark Dorosin, an attorney with the University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights.
Dorosin has been working with residents in the community for more than a year. “The residents always felt like they were unfairly annexed and caught up in the city’s economic development plan without proper notice.”
He said the citizens in the Brandy Creek community are taxed significantly higher for the little development that has occurred in the development thus far. “Some property got sold and as a result their (people who stayed) property got way over valued by the tax assessor.”
Dorosin said the legislators must approve the de-annexing and said he was encouraged to hear the mayor and the city was willing to help.
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