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GREENSBORO — The city will fight a judge’s decision to overturn a 2009  annexation, Greensboro leaders said this week.

The decision has other annexed residents questioning whether they should launch their own legal battle — and at least one other city wondering if  its own annexation policies could be undone.

But Greensboro leaders say they are confident they followed the proper legal process in the annexation and they have fulfilled their end of the bargain by providing city services.

“From our perspective, we went about the process the right way,” Assistant City Manager Denise Turner said.

Meanwhile, city leaders are still trying to work out lingering questions about the legal decision, such as whether they have to refund $314,902 in Greensboro property taxes paid by those homeowners.

Last year , four residents of the McLeansville neighborhoods Whitehurst Village, Hartwood Village and Laurel Park sued to stop the city’s planned annexation.

The subdivision developers had agreed — years before — to be annexed in exchange for city water and sewer.

A Superior Court judge agreed with current property owners that they could not be held liable for the developers’ agreements with the city.

Greensboro has been using that kind of petition annexation agreement for a decade.

“(The judge’s decision) certainly challenges the legal validity of the petition we have been using for some years now,” City Planning Director Dick Hails  said.

Jamestown’s voluntary annexation process is modeled after Greensboro’s because, Jamestown Planning Director Matthew Johnson  said, it’s tried and true.

He said if Greensboro’s annexation is void,  that could have implications in other cities.

“The city has spent a lot of money preparing for this, and I would really like to see what another judge says,” he said. “How can a city be responsible for informing every owner in a new subdivision?”

Some cities, like High Point, annex immediately after entering into the utility service agreement.

Hails said Greensboro got away from that practice years ago. There was a need to provide water and sewer extension to boost economic development in eastern Guilford County, he said, but the city wasn’t ready to provide other services.

The city slowly rolled out services to the area, first putting in the water and sewer lines. The Greensboro Fire Department is set to begin construction of a station on  Mount Hope Church Road this month , although the department is  already serving the area at a temporary location.

“We fulfilled our part of the deal,” Hails said. “Now our anticipation of the tit for tat isn’t there.”

Other annexed homeowners  are considering their legal options. About 20 homes south of Interstate 40/85 were taken into the city in a forced annexation in 2008, when Whitehurst Village, Hartwood Village and Laurel Park were originally scheduled to be annexed.

Neighbors there say it is unfair to be one small swath of Greensboro in a neighborhood mostly in the county.

Unlike the other subdivisions, these homes do not have city water and sewer. Homeowners are having to pay for that to be installed, although they have working wells and septic systems.

Residents wonder if they might prevail in court the way their neighbors down Millstream Road have.

“If there’s any chance that these guys can win at the state level, I do believe we will bring our own court case,” said resident Clyde Gann. 

Contact Amanda Lehmert at 373-7075 or amanda.lehmert@news-record.com