Just about every month, the Greensboro City Council annexes some land.

But there is a bill before the North Carolina General Assembly to deannex 10.6 acres of land from Greensboro – not something that happens very often.

Rep. Jon Hardister is sponsoring House Bill 164 entitled, “An Act To Remove Certain Described Property From The Corporate Limits Of The City Of Greensboro.”

According to the bill drafting notes, “This deannexation was requested by the owner of the Property, Donald Brann & T. Dawn Brannock Brann.  The Property was originally annexed into the corporate limits of the City of Greensboro on September 30, 2007.  The owner of the Property now desires to place a mobile home upon a portion of the Property, which is not currently permitted under the City of Greensboro Land Development Ordinance.  The City of Greensboro does not object to this deannexation proposal.”

Hardister said that in 2007 a developer had the property “annexed into the city under the presumption that there would be some sort of development.”  However, after the property was annexed and zoned by the City of Greensboro, the development deal fell through.

Now the owners want to place a mobile home on the property, which they can’t do under the Greensboro Land Development Ordinance.  However, the Guilford County zoning ordinance does allow mobile homes.

Since the Greensboro City Council annexes land regularly, it would seem this issue of deannexation would come before them.  However, the bill drafting notes explain that the General Assembly has given the authority to municipalities to annex property.  “However, the General Assembly has not enacted any method for municipalities to deannex property.  The only way that property can be removed from the corporate limits of a municipality is by a local act of the General Assembly.”

Hardister said that local bills in the long session (held in odd years) do not require unanimous consent of the county delegation as they do in short session (even years), but he added that he didn’t know of any reason there would be opposition since the City of Greensboro does not oppose the deannexation.