By David L. Lazenby
Editor
TRUSSVILLE — Annexation dominated discussion Thursday at a Trussville City Council workshop attended by a Dollar Road resident who has requested Trussville city limits be extended to include his family’s properties in the area.
Mayor Buddy Choat said the discussion was primarily prompted by the city’s desire to streamline the process.
Along with touching property already in the city, land can only become part of Trussville if it meets certain requirements of the City’s police, fire, public works and inspections departments.
During a previous work session, Fire Chief Tim Shotts pointed out a worksheet for determining if property outside of city limits qualifies for annexation needed additional clarity.
Shotts said because the department’s fire trucks are equipped with 1,200 feet of hose, he uses this as his standard for his department’s recommendations for annexation allowance. .
The city’s fire suppression rating is Class 3, with Class 1 being the most superior and Class 10 having the highest level of fire risk.
“Insurance companies are going to want to know what the distance is to the closest fire hydrant and the closest fire station,’ he said.
Property being annexed into Trussville must be less than five miles from one of the city’s fire stations.
Councilor Alan Taylor said he he feels it is important that the city’s standards regarding fire hydrant standard be consistently enforced for annexation applicants.
Prior to the Council voting on annexation requests, the city’s Planning and Zoning Board makes a recommendation about annexation.
City Clerk Lynn B. Porter said information from the departments that grade the property has caused the process to become “convoluted”
“Now the Planning Board is making its decision based on what the departments have said, and that was not their job. They were supposed to make a recommendation on the zoning and use of the property,” she said. “All of those recommendations were supposed to come to the City Council, not the Planning Board, but everything just got kind of jumbled up over the years.”
Jef Freeman, who serves on the Council and the Planning and Zoning Board, said the board is seeking “clear direction” from the Council in how it should make recommendations.
Brian Caudle said he applied for annexation so his 4-year-old son can attend Trussville schools. He also wants annexation for a property he rents because the family there also wants their children to be able to attend schools in the Trussville school system.
Shotts said Caudle’s property is 2,700 feet from a fire hydrant. A hydrant can be installed. However, Shotts said the problem is that even if a hydrant is installed closer to the property, the waterline provided by Birmingham Waterworks may not not equipped to provide sufficient water pressure needed to fight fire.
Shotts said a six-inch main would be necessary to make having a new hydrant of any use to the Dollar Street residents who want to be in Trussville. Plant said Shotts would look into what this would cost and informed Caudle that the cost of the improvement would be the responsibility of him and others in the area seeking annexation.
Shotts speculated the cost would be about $4,000.
The City charges a $1,000 annexation fee to property owners allowed to be annexed into Trussville.
The Council also discussed installing a policy that would give counselors more time to study annexation decisions. Choat recommended that annexations not be put on a Council meeting agenda until the Council can hold a workshop after receiving a recommendation from the Planning and Zoning Board.
“We need a little more time to make sure we totally understand the implications,” the mayor said.
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