By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

The Clanton City Council approved annexation of three parcels of land during its Feb. 11 meeting.

The Council suspended the rules to allow the ordinance to be voted on right away rather then waiting until a later meeting as city guidelines call for.

Requests for annexation of property between Ballington Place Subdivision and the city limits had been presented by Straight Line Engineering at a previous meeting. A map was on hand for viewing of the specific parcels.   An annexation request was also made for the subdivision.

The properties are in the Lomax area.

“Most of it is agriculture,” Mayor Billy Joe Driver said. “There is one little subdivision that has been sitting there for years … and a little piece of property that they are trying to buy.”

the annexed properties include 150 acres that will be requested to be zoned agricultural, 12 acres that the company wants zoned R-1 Residential and Ballington Place that the company wants zoned Garden Home Community Zoning.

Driver asked that the zoning be designated during the annexation process.

“There is no difference bringing it in already zoned as there is as MR Municipal Reserve,” Driver said.

Driver said it could streamline the process by eliminating the two months of advertising and planning commission meetings for rezoning, since the land use was not changing from what the land was currently.

Building Inspector Gene Martin said rezoning requests were required to be advertised in a local newspaper for a set number of weeks.

City Attorney John Hollis Jackson Jr. expressed concern about designating specific zoning during the annexation process, rather than taking it in as MR and then rezoning at a later date as is customarily done.

“My concern about annexing it and doing something extra to it — it might pass like that and have no problem at all, but it can affect voting, redistricting all of those things, if some court rules that it is not a valid annexation because of something extra that was added into it,” Jackson said.

Before the property comes up for rezoning from MR to the specific zones the developers want, letters will go out to adjoining property owners and signs will be posted by the building department.

The long –term goals for the company do include developing the 150 acres, but the company wanted to get the property into the Clanton city limits before developing a master plan.

Also during the meeting, the Council approved:

• Paying a bill of about $16,000 to Taylor Made for hauling garbage.
• Getting bids for renovations to a city building.