Fayetteville to annex Gates Four community in 2009

Council members approved the annexation of the Gates Four Golf and Country Club by a vote of 7 to 3. The annexation will take place effective Sunday, Nov. 22, 2009.

City leaders passed a resolution of intent by the same margin in July and have since held public hearings on the matter.

When the resolution was approved, Mike Moline, the homeowners' association secretary, said that Gates Four residents opposed the plan but had accepted it as inevitable.

Residents of the 600-home community won a temporary stay from annexation when they fought a city plan in 2004.

In September, Fayetteville also annexed Fort Bragg, boosting its population by 30,000 and making it North Carolina's sixth largest city.

The city's recent acquisitions come among complaints that some of 43,000 residents have not gotten sewer and water service to their properties that were involuntarily annexed four years ago.

State law requires that cities to immediately provide police, fire and solid waste pick-up service but does not set a deadline for water and sewer services.

Involuntary annexation became an issue in the General Assembly this year, when the House passed a yearlong moratorium on the practice. The Senate scrapped the bill, saying it did not meet Senate rules.