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Annexation crux of impasse

Brooksville won't hook water and sewer to a planned county building unless it's annexed. The county balks. It's a standoff.

By ASJYLYN LODER
Published October 5, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - Hernando County officials have reached an impasse with the city of Brooksville over the annexation of a 2-acre lot next to the county's planned emergency operations center.

Unless the county agrees to allow the city to annex the site, the city is threatening not to hook up water and sewer to the $5.6-million center, potentially delaying the project, County Attorney Garth Coller explained at Tuesday's County Commission meeting.

Coller called the annexation requirement "extortionary" and said city officials should address annexation issues before the commission, and not in a water and sewer connection agreement.

"We didn't think that it was appropriate for basically staff to redraw the borders of Hernando County," Coller said.

Bill Geiger, community development director for Brooksville, said the annexation clause was standard when the city provides utilities for any property that is contiguous to incorporated land and may eventually become an enclave. This property met both conditions, Geiger said.

"The city doesn't gain anything other than, from a planning point of view, the opportunity to avoid enclaves later," Geiger said.

The 19,000-square-foot, two-story operations center, next to the Sheriff's Office on the State Road 50 truck route in Brooksville, is designed to withstand hurricane gusts up to 160 mph. The center, which will house the sheriff's technology and communications staff, straddles land inside and outside the city, all of it county-owned. The center itself will be built on land already inside the city limits. An adjacent 2-acre lot slated for parking and drainage remains unincorporated.

In order to build, the county needed a construction permit from Brooksville that required the county to apply for water and sewer connections.

The county applied, but deleted a section of the utility service agreement that allows Brooksville to annex the unincorporated lot. The parking lot will require no water or sewer connection, and the connections for the operations center will not pass through the lot, said Assistant County Engineer Gregg Sutton.

The standoff underscores the tension between the county and the city over annexation, said Commissioner Diane Rowden. Rowden fears that signing off on the annexation would set a precedent in future squabbles over county property.

"If we sign off on something like this, what have we signed for the future of Hernando County?" Rowden asked. "Are we agreeing that everything they're doing with annexation is all right? I don't."

Sutton said the county and city have four to six weeks to resolve the issue before construction reaches the point where water and sewer connections are necessary.

The county hopes to have the center completed in time for the 2006 hurricane season.

Asjylyn Loder can be reached at aloder@sptimes.com or 352 754-6127.

[Last modified October 5, 2005, 01:14:17]