KPS discusses annexation plans

By Alan Riquelmy / Selma Times – Journal

Business owners heard from Darrell Meyer of KPS Group on the second night of his presentation.

Tuesday and Wednesday night Meyer presented his group’s strategic development concept and annexation plan to City Council members, business owners and citizens. The plan focuses on Selma annexing portions of the city’s gateways, maintaining the city’s edges and reducing the costs of providing services outside the city.

Mayor James Perkins Jr. said that the City Council needs to adopt the study so that its recommendations could be implemented.

Some of those recommendations include a statement in &uot;A Bridge to the Future &045;&045; A Plan for Managing Change,&uot; a study commissioned about three years ago.

In that study Meyer pointed out that it stated &uot;the city limits of Selma should be expanded.&uot;

Perkins agreed with that statement, saying that Meyer’s recent study was nothing new. Whether or not the political courage exists to see that vision through, though, is another matter.

In the most recent study, Meyer said that poorly organized city gateways give an undesirable image of Selma. On Dec. 9, 2002, the council agreed with him and chose to look into annexation as a method of solving that problem.

Annexation would be implemented in phases.

Phase I would be to annex public roadway rights-of-way and adjacent properties that have strategic value for commercial or industrial use.

Phase II would shrink the city’s police jurisdiction back to the city limits. This would, Meyer said, give people a reason for wanting to be annexed.

Phase III would see the preparation of a citywide comprehensive plan and prepare a corridor redevelopment plan.

A corridor redevelopment plan would consist of an economic and physical evaluation and an overall development strategy.

Phase IV would invite people to be annexed using the general statute and unanimous consent methods.

The three methods of annexation are a general statute, unanimous consent and a special act of the legislature.