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Oak Ridge ETJ/Annexation bill has one more vote

The Oak Ridge ETJ/Annexation bill (S 495) passed third reading in the House Monday night. The vote was 87-29. The measure is heading back to the Senate for a concurrence vote on Tuesday.

Assuming the Senate agrees to the measure, it would become law. (The governor does not need to sign local bills.)

You can click here and here for background.

Giving Oak Ridge the power to control development in the area between its borders and the Forsyth County line has been the subject of a debate between the Guilford County and Forsyth County delegations, or at least between Rep. John Blust of Guilford and Rep. Larry Brown of Forsyth, both Republicans.

The argument here is pretty simple: Blust says that Oak Ridge ought to have control over the territory since a) it’s in Guilford County and b) residents there are simpatico with Oak Ridge.

Brown says Oak Ridge agreed in its deep dark past to keep its mitts off the area. And besides, Kernersville has designs on crossing the boarder and annexing the land. 

“There is a whole body of law in North Carolina that governs situations in which there appears to be some sort of agreement but there wasn’t really mutuality of assent,” Blust said. He argued Oak Ridge was bullied into a “one sided bargain” by earlier sessions of the General Assembly and Greensboro. “I don’t think that’s some sort of moral obligation.”

Brown stood up and shot back Monday: “I think Mr. Blust hit the nail on the head: moral obligation. If two communities can’t make moral obligations among themselves, what good are they?” Brown warned if the General Assembly passed this bill, it could lead to all sorts of agreements between cities being broken.

That prompted Rep. Robert Grady of Jacksonville to chime in, pledging his support to Brown’s cause but adding:

“But I’ll hope you’ll go home and tell your people if they trusted a unit of government to keep their word on a moral obligation, they were fools.”

Click here to listen to the evening’s debate.