Long Beach wants to annex land to more than double city’s size. Will neighbors fight it?
Long Beach’s plan to annex 20 square miles, doubling the city’s size and stretching its borders to the commercial corridors around Interstate 10, could be setting up a legal showdown with the City of Gulfport.
Both cities are eager to gain tax revenue by annexing Harrison County land north of their current boundaries. Any annexation process generally involves years of fighting in court, and this one is still in the early stages: Long Beach hasn’t yet filed its annexation paperwork with the Harrison County Chancery Court.
But the proposed map has already raised eyebrows inside Gulfport City Hall. The proposal shows Long Beach’s eastern boundary running along Canal Road, extending north to the interchange with I-10. Then, the new border juts east to include all four corners of the interchange— which Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes says is in his city’s growth path.
“At this point, we don’t see it as an adversarial position as much as just part of our natural growth path,” he said. “It could be something that we would challenge. But a lot of this would be subject to discussions down the road with the Mayor [George Bass]. And with Long Beach officials, and most likely Harrison County officials as well.”
Long Beach Mayor George Bass said legal challenges and negotiations are part of the process, and he’s prepared for that.
“I fully expected Gulfport to not agree with where we want to annex to,” he said. “I haven’t heard anything from Pass Christian, haven’t heard anything from the county. But I fully expect them to have some objections somewhere along the line. I think our board expects that.”
He also said that if Gulfport challenged any annexation east of Canal Road, such as the eastern half of the interchange, Long Beach likely wouldn’t contest Gulfport.
Bass said Long Beach expects to file its paperwork with the court by January. He said the city estimates litigation over the annexation plans could take eighteen months to two years.
One recent annexation battle between Gulfport and Biloxi dragged on for seven years and ended with a settlement in 2014.
In Mississippi, county chancery court judges rule on annexation cases. Parties can appeal their decisions to the Mississippi Supreme Court.
City growing fast
Bass said annexation is necessary because Long Beach is growing quickly with little open land remaining in its current borders.
Over the last four years, he said, the city has seen an average of 125 new homes built. There’s vacant land along U.S. 90 next to the beach, but building homes there is prohibitively expensive because of elevation requirements.
While the land area Long Beach is looking to annex is large, Bass said that much of it is wetlands.
“So it’s a large land area but it’s not a lot of residential area,” he said.
Currently, the businesses in the proposed annexation area pay sales taxes that go into state coffers. After annexation, the money would go to Long Beach.
Under the annexation proposal, school district lines would not change.
The path to annexation
Bass said Long Beach last annexed land in the 1980s.
The city’s board of aldermen voted in 2019 to complete a study on annexation to evaluate the number of businesses and homes affected and what it would cost Long Beach to extend services in an expanded area.
The study found the annexation proposal would add about 2,700 people, 113 businesses and 1,150 homes to the City of Long Beach.
It also evaluated how many additional firemen, police and city hall staff Long Beach would need to hire to provide services to the new area.
On Dec. 7, the board of aldermen voted to adopt an ordinance in favor of annexation.
Ward 1 Alderman Patrick Bennett was the sole dissenter in the vote.
Bennett, who took office in July, told the Sun Herald he felt he didn’t have enough information to support annexation at the time of the vote, particularly as to whether the financial benefits to the city would ultimately outweigh the cost.
“Really just comes down to debits and credits,” he said. “Do the credits outweigh the debts in the end? That would just be my concern. And the initial cost is also a concern.”
Other aldermen either did not respond to phone calls and text messages seeking comment, or referred the Sun Herald to Bass.
Gulfport to pursue annexation, too
Hewes said that Gulfport already provides some municipal services like fire and police response in the unincorporated areas along Canal Road, particularly close to I-10. He said Gulfport is also laying the groundwork to pursue annexation in the near future.
“Because we’re already providing a number of services for a number of years there, and as we grow in a very rapid fashion, annexation is one of the steps that we need to consider,” he said.
On Tuesday, Gulfport’s city council voted to hire a consulting firm to study and give strategic advice on the city’s projected growth paths.
This story was originally published December 22, 2021 at 10:13 AM.
