North Carolina Senate Bill 219 would grant the towns of Marvin and Stallings the power to annex large parcels of non-contiguous land in the county, even if the land is miles from current town limits. This is called "satellite annexation."

Satellite Annexation means a town can expand its boundaries to include land not directly connected to the town as long as the current land owner agrees to be annexed. In other words, a town could "leapfrog" over miles of land to claim a separate, distant piece of property as part of the town. In a county with ever-shrinking rural areas, this is an unnecessary exemption. 

Current, minor safeguards exist to prevent satellite annexation from negatively impacting rural areas (see link below). SB219 would exempt Marvin and Stallings from those restrictions, giving blanket opportunity to annex a piece of land and do with it as the town pleases, thus removing these safeguards for rural, unincorporated areas and residents. These towns are not required to declare which parcels of land they are interested in annexing to receive this exemption from the state.

Current NC law allows towns to annex satellite land under certain conditions, such as having a large enough population of taxpayers to support that growth responsibly. These requirements help to ensure towns have the resources to provide essential services like police, fire, and medic as well as infrastructure like sewer, water, roads, and schools to support their plans for the annexed property.

SB219 opens the door to scattered, unplanned development in rural areas and could bypass the county's plans for future development. This kind of development removes power from property owners surrounding the annexed pieces of land and places power in the hands of officials and voting populations in a different part of the county. If you live beside the satellite-annexed land, you have no say in what is built or how the land is utilized.

Why this bill is a problem:

1) Loss of protection for rural citizens: Rural residents are fewer in number and therefore already lack voting power. If towns are allowed to annex satellite land in rural areas, residents of those rural areas lose their decision-making power. Decisions affecting quality of life, traffic, sewage, what is built on the land, etc. would be made by officials in towns miles away, officials who have no vested interest in that area aside from tax revenue from the annexed land.

2) Unrealistic emergency services: How can small towns like Marvin and Stallings realistically provide police, fire, or medical services to remote properties? What will response time be from these town centers to the annexed locations? Will the town police regularly patrol those areas?

3) Who supports the infrastructure? Will these small towns be responsible for building and maintaining roads, water, and sewer lines for any developments on the new land? Or will surrounding, unincorporated areas shoulder the burden of poorly-planned infrastructure costs?

4) Is this a tax grab or a community need? Do the current residents of Marvin or Stallings benefit from annexing satellite land? Or are these annexations designed to expand tax revenue to make up for budgeting shortfalls? Will the annexed land then significantly change the voting population of that town based on how the land is developed?

5) A single landowner could override their neighbors and the county. Under SB 219, a single landowner could agree to annexation even if all neighboring landowners oppose it. This sets a dangerous precedent of power to a single entity and weakens communities.

6) The current laws work to protect rural areas while allowing towns to grow, and exemptions weaken those protections. The current, reasonable restrictions (via link below) allow towns to pursue satellite annexations responsibly. The current law ensures adequate resources and infrastructure for planned growth.

7) The ambiguity of the bill does not require the towns to provide information about their intentions on which lands they would like to annex, when they plan to annex, or how the town intends to use that land. Shouldn't we be able to see what the intention is behind this exemption?

What's at stake? SB219 is not about smart, balanced growth or community planning. It gives two towns special treatment at the expense of rural residents, farmland, and the future of Union County. It burdens the taxpayers of the annexing towns, who will bear the burden of costs to develop annexed land. Once these lands are annexed, there is no going back. It opens the remaining rural land to inappropriate, money-driven development that does not consider the needs of other local residents.

Link to the current law and the proposed bill: dashboard.ncleg.gov/api/Services/BillSummary/2025/S219-SMBA-4(e2)-v-2