Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams, when asked about annexation this past week, said that rather than going through the cost and possible fight of taking in areas that are already developed, she would rather the city annex undeveloped land and hope that it would become the location for future homes and businesses.
Good luck with that.
The city tried that 16 years ago, when it expanded its land area by a third and took in only 100 people. The growth didn’t follow.
The mayor seems to miss the point that there is no incentive for people who are building homes to do so in the city. Better to be just outside of it, where you get most of the benefits of city life, including Greenwood’s water and electricity service and fire protection, but don’t have to pay the higher city taxes.
City Councilman Johnny Jennings, who is rightfully alarmed about the city’s steady decline in population, has a decent idea when he recommends requiring that new housing areas outside the city be built in compliance with city codes before allowing them to tie into Greenwood Utilities’ water and electricity service. This would help with future developments and make it easier to annex them.
In the meantime, though, the city must also address what’s already out there, such as the more than 30 upscale homes that have been built around Robert E. Lee Drive Extended, a stone’s throw from the city limits.
Taking in that area is a no-brainer. There may be some up-front costs to getting the infrastructure up to city standards, but the taxes on this neighborhood within a couple of years would cover that expense. After that it would be a net positive to the city’s balance sheet. There are almost certainly other areas among the thousands of people who live outside the city limits where the same would be true.
According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimate, the city’s population is less than 14,000, the lowest it’s been since the 1930s. As a percentage, Greenwood has suffered one of the largest drops — almost 15 percent — of all the municipalities in Mississippi since 2010.
It could reverse that narrative of a city in decline with a stroke of a pen, but city leaders, other than Jennings, seem mostly content to rock along. Until when? How low does the population have to go before the City Council gets over its hang-ups — whether it be about minute racial dilution or fear of angering potential voters — and expand the city limits?
It hurts the image of Greenwood to look on paper like a city that’s drying up. It’s unfair to residents who live in the city to pay for the streets, parks and other amenities through high property taxes on their homes and automobiles while others on the outskirts who enjoy most of these same amenities don’t. Who in the city wouldn’t love to only have to pay for Greenwood’s fire protection when you actually have a fire, as county residents do?
Greenwood has been negligent about annexation for decades. The mayor and City Council need to end this negligence now.
