ATHENS, Ala. — Annexation can be a tricky topic of conversation. As surrounding areas continue to grow, here's the entire process.
Limestone County District 2 Commissioner Danny Barksdale said, "Annexation is simply a process between the annexing authority, Huntsville in this case, and a landowner."
The only requirement is that it has to touch an existing part of the city that's being annexed. "Right here, see how this is contiguous? Okay, they went up here, because they were able to go up there, that's a public utility. They were able to annex all of this," he explained.
County governments don't even have to be made aware that a track of land is being annexed. "Provided the landowner has petitioned the city of Huntsville for annexation," Commissioner Barksdale stated.
As the surrounding areas continue to grow, Athens District 1 City Councilman Chris Seibert said he just wants residents to feel confident that the city of Athens is aggressively annexing the same way that Huntsville is. "Some things we work jointly, and we want to continue to do that with Huntsville. some things we're working on and they're working on at the same time. as long as it makes sense financially for us to be able to provide the same level of services there... then we're going to aggressively pursue annexing these certain pieces of property," he said.
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