news-record.com

McLeansville residents fighting annexation to Greensboro won another round in court today.

A three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s earlier decision to nullify a 2009 annexation.

Four residents had sued the city to fight the annexation, which involved three subdivisions encompassing 151 acres and about 285 homes just off Interstate 85 in the area of Mount Hope Church Road.

Between 1997 and 2000, developers of those subdivisions — Whitehurst Village, Hartwood Village and Laurel Park — asked for city water and sewer. In exchange for the infrastructure, developers petitioned for the city to annex the subdivisions.

But when the city decided to annex the land years later, some people who bought those homes said they did not know their neighborhoods were going to become part of Greensboro. They argued the city could not hold them to annexation agreements made with the subdivision developers.

In February 2010, Superior Court Judge Edwin G. Wilson agreed with the residents and nullified the annexation.

The city appealed, arguing before the Appeals Court in November that state law allows the city to enter binding annexation agreements — and those agreements should apply to future owners.