A legislative study committee is recommending that residents of unincorporated areas targeted for involuntary annexation should be allowed to vote on the matter.

The Joint Study Commission on Municipal Annexation voted 14-6 Thursday to recommend that referendums be required before involuntary annexations can be carried out.

The vote was met with applause from many of those in attendance.

Doug Aitken, a Pinewid resident and president of the Fair Annexation Coalition, is a member of the committee.

Requiring referendums was one of several changes the panel favors to increase public input and give more recourse in the annexation process. The panel also recommended that a moratorium on annexations be imposed until the current state laws are overhauled.

All of the recommendations now go to the General Assembly, which convenes this week for its long session.

Aitken said in a telephone interview Friday that he was pleased with the committee's recommendations but that there's still a lot of work to be done.

"I was overall very pleased with the way the commission voted," he said. "I think that speaks wonders for how far we've come. [But] it doesn't mean we're there."

Aitken said the action by the committee was a remarkable turnaround, considering involuntary annexation opponents "couldn't get in the door" three years ago.

Last summer, the House approved a nine-month moratorium on involuntary annexations. The Senate failed to act on the bill, effectively killing it. But it did agree to study annexation issues with the House in advance of the new session, leading to the creation of the commission.

State Sen. Tony Rand, of Fayetteville, and the North Carolina League of Municipalities are expected to fight the proposal calling for referendums. The League of Municipalities is a lobbying group that holds considerable clout in the General Assembly.

Rand has been an outspoken advocate for involuntary annexation, claiming the growth of cities is contingent on the ability to do so. He claims that few property owners would vote to pay more taxes.

Aitken said Rand would have a point if municipalities were only taking in areas that already have a full complement of services, such as Pinewild Country Club, and would be seeing only an increase in taxes. But Aitken said that the vast majority of annexations in North Carolina are voluntary. He said if residents need services, they would be willing to seek annexation.

He added that many other states allow for a referendum before annexation takes place.

"Throughout the country, votes work," he said.

The current annexation statute requires a municipality to have two public meetings before the annexation takes place. It is also required to provide emergency and street services as well as water and sewer line extensions and hookups to the new residents. If those services aren't delivered on time, the new residents can file a lawsuit.

Aitken called it a "flawed law" that even the League of Municipalities admits is problematic.

"That's what it reads, but it doesn't mean anything," he said.

Aitken said that holding a "public meeting" doesn't mean the affected residents' input would be heeded. He said at the meetings Pinehurst held regarding the Pinewild annexation, audience members were not allowed to ask questions of the Village Council, making it nothing more than a "public-venting session."

"Everything is stacked against the citizen," he said.

As for the Pinewild case, Aitken couldn't say how the recommendations would affect its efforts to block annexation. It has been tied up in legal action for over year.

"Any community under an annexation fight knows what's happening in the legislature will probably not help their situation," he said. "I don't know what the impact might be on Pinewild. But I think Pinewild has a pretty damn good case anyway."

Aitken said he anticipated a difficult fight in the weeks ahead in the General Assembly, but one that can be won. He pointed out that few people thought the moratorium bill would get as far as it did last summer, either.

"We've gotta do one step at a time and work our butts off," he said. "We've got the facts. We've got the research. Now we have to get people to listen."

Contact John Krahnert III at 693-2473 or by e-mail at jkrahnert@thepilot.com.