Most study areas favor de-annexation from Memphis

Unsurprisingly, many of the 10,672 people facing possible de-annexation from Memphis like the sound of higher property values and lower taxes, a survey confirmed Thursday. But not all.

A majority of residents in North Raleigh, one of the seven de-annexation study areas, said they favored remaining in the city limits, making less likely the de-annexation of the 3,671 people living in the area generally on either side of New Allen Road, north of Ridgemont Road. The city is projected to lose an estimated $665,481 from the de-annexation of that area, part of a $7.6 million net annual revenue loss from de-annexing all seven areas.

“‘Why are we even being considered here.’ That was the consistent question from people in Raleigh,” said Gene Bryan, a principal of public strategy firm Caissa.

Bryan dissected the survey results Thursday for the Strategic Footprint Review Task Force, a group of officials charged by the City Council with reviewing the feasibility of “right-sizing” Memphis. The task force expects to recommend to the council the de-annexation of some areas, although the cuts may not happen for several years.

In all study areas expect Raleigh and Frayser West, a majority of residents said they favored de-annexation. The three residents living in Frayser West, an area along Highway 51 that includes the Memphis Police Academy, were either tied on the question or didn’t respond — Bryan wasn’t immediately available to clarify which.

Again unsurprisingly, about 93 percent of people living in South Cordova and Southwind-Windyke study areas wanted out of the city, Bryan said. Germantown Republican Sen. Brian Kelsey, who attended the meeting, said the survey “confirmed” his opinion that those two areas in particular “really want out of the city.”

“I’m glad the residents have been heard,” Kelsey said.

Generally, survey respondents said they preferred de-annexation because of the impact on property values or taxes, or because they wrongly thought deannexation would change school districts, Bryan said. But the survey also showed that people generally want the city services they’d be leaving behind.

“A lot of people want out of this city, don’t want to pay the taxes, and if it raises taxes for everyone else, so be it,” Bryan said.

County Chief Operations Officer Harvey Kennedy said preliminary calculations show the county’s expenses would grow by about $3 million if all seven areas are de-annexed, mostly because of the need to hire additional sheriff’s deputies. But that’s a comparatively small portion of the general fund and probably wouldn’t require a tax increase, he added.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s administration in February recommended studying seven areas for de-annexation: North Raleigh; Frayser West; the vacant Riverbottoms area of Southwest Memphis, a flood plain near the Mississippi River; most of the residential areas of Southwind-Windyke as well as the Southwind golf course; the Eads

area south of U.S. 64 from Cobb Road west to the Shelby County line; the area between Rocky Point Road and Forest Hill north of Walnut Grove; and South Cordova. Many of those areas are sparsely populated, some with little infrastructure in place.

The city is still crafting a formula to determine how much of the city’s debt and other legacy costs should fall to de-annexed residents, Chief Operations Officer Doug McGowen said.

More information about the potential de-annexations is available at rightsizememphis.com.

The task force was created by the City Council in 2016 after the state legislature nearly approved a bill allowing residents in any areas annexed since 1989 to initiate de-annexations regardless of the impact on the governments losing or absorbing the residents. Reach Ryan Poe at poe@commercialappeal. com or on Twitter at @ryanpoe.