The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled Friday that the city could move forward with its plan to bring in 42,000 county residents -- making the plan the biggest annexation in Fayetteville's history.
Fayetteville city leaders, however, cannot annex the 28 square miles right away. They still need official notice from the state Supreme Court and then they have to wait at least 30 to 45 days.
The court ruled the opponents did not file court papers opposing the annexation in time.
"We did follow the guidelines for doing this, so, we were somewhat confident that this would eventually happen," said Fayetteville City Spokesman Jason Brady.
One of the annexation's opponents, Walter Murphy, said he plans to appeal.
"We believe that this annexation was wrong and if something's wrong, you fight it with everything you've got as long as you've got until the very end," Murphy said.
Still, as far as city leaders are concerned, the case is over and the annexation goes on as planned.
Under Friday's ruling, the Gates Four neighborhood, which did file court papers in time, will not be annexed by the city.
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