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Pavilion annexation upheld by Ga. Appeals Court

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

The Georgia Court of Appeals has upheld a judge’s decision that the City of Fayetteville properly annexed two parcels totaling 57 acres at the Fayette Pavilion shopping center.

The decision resolves a lawsuit filed by the Fayette County Commission, which claimed that the state’s annexation laws were violated because two 10-foot strips of land were removed from both parcels to avoid creating an unincorporated island of land.

The court ruled that the parcels annexed into the city, one bordering Ga. Highway 314 and the other bordering Ga. Highway 85, were contiguous and therefore in compliance with Georgia law regarding annexations.

In a five-page opinion, appeals court judge M. Yvette Miller wrote that when the court has applied a strict interpretation of annexation methods, “the General Assembly has promptly amended the statutes to overcome such court-enunciated limitations.”

“There is no showing here that the landowner subdivided the property in an attempt to evade the requirements ... and we decline to reach a conclusion that would, in effect, leave the landowner in this case no way of having his property annexed,” Miller wrote.

Appeals Court Judges Gary Blaylock Andrews and John J. Ellington concurred with the opinion.

The appeal was filed by the county after Fayette County Superior Court Judge Paschal A. English ruled in the city’s favor April 16, 2003.