Annexation and the City of Conway

Annexation and the City of Conway

Over the past few years there has been an uptick of annexations of properties into the City of Conway.  Annexation incorporates a property into the City limits.  It is the process of transferring the parcel of land from an unincorporated area of the county (i.e. Horry County) into the service area and jurisdiction of a city (i.e. Conway).  Being contiguous to the Conway municipal boundaries is a key eligibility requirement for annexation.

Annexation Benefits

• Property Owner Benefit - having property within a municipality can give access to improved services like better police and fire protection, which can in turn reduce insurance rates. Of more importance to some property owners, particularly businesses, might be better water and sewer rates through annexation into cities and towns that operate such utilities or have intergovernmental agreements in place to offer reduced rates for customers.  Many property owners considering development of their property are coming into Conway with its zoning and land-use regulations to provide more options for development density, which in turn can make the land more valuable and a project more economically feasible.
• City Benefit - bringing more property and residents into municipal limits can reduce costs for services through economies of scale, meaning the more customers there are for a service, the lower the per-customer cost for that service.

Legal Process

Under the South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 5 – Municipal Corporations, Chapter 3, Change of Corporate Limits, any city or town may extend the corporate limits of the municipality in a manner set forth in Chapter 3 of this Code of Law.

Under these Code of Laws there are multiple ways to annex a property, with the most common being the 100% petition and ordinance method.  Under this method the property owner signs a legal document requesting annexation, i.e. Petition for Annexation

Annexation Resources:

• South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 5 – Municipal Corporations, Chapter 3, Change of Corporate Limits
• City of Conway Petition for Annexation
• Annexation Handbook – Municipal Association of South Carolina

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