Opinion: Watson vows no going back on forced annexation
The word "annexation" in a new bill filed in the Tennessee General Assembly has spooked people afraid the state may be seeking to return to the day when municipalities could gobble up unincorporated territory at will.
However, the bill is doing nothing of the sort, state Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, said. He along with the late state Rep. Mike Carter shepherded the 2014 bill that stopped forced annexation, and he has sponsored the current bill.
The bill, as introduced, "deletes [the] requirement that municipalities adopt a comprehensive growth plan and have an approved urban growth boundary prior to annexing unincorporated territory."
The bill's intent, Watson said, is to eliminate the bureaucracy attached to comprehensive growth plans, which were created for local governments to delineate defined boundaries for potential annexation or incorporation over the coming 20 years.