Wilmington to provide services to Monkey Junction in wake of court ruling | News

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) – It looks like Monkey Junction will be annexed into the City of Wilmington.

City council members met in a closed session Tuesday night to talk about the possible annexation.  City leaders agreed to take immediate steps to provide city services to residents in the Monkey Junction area.  Council members made the decision after a recent court ruling that found the new annexation statutes were unconstitutional.  Those statutes were approved by the General Assembly in 2011.

So, the city is interpreting that Monkey Junction became annexed the day of the court's ruling.  In a statement, Wilmington City Manager Sterling Cheatham says the city felt it had to take the steps to begin providing city services to comply with state law and to protect the city from potential liability even though the ruling could still be appealed or the General Assembly could still make further changes to the annexation laws.

"We must follow the law and also take the necessary steps to protect the city even as further legal challenges or reforms to the law are considered," said Cheatham.

The city's release goes on to say:

"A Wake County Superior Court judge ruled on March 27 that the new annexation statutes approved by the General Assembly in 2011 are unconstitutional. This was the first legal ruling on statutes enacted by the General Assembly in 2011 that require cities to get approval from a majority of affected property owners before annexations can go forward. Wilmington and four other NC cities that had active annexations in process when the new law was passed filed a lawsuit earlier this year challenging the constitutionality of the new statutes.

The City Council annexed the Monkey Junction area in 2009 in accordance with state law in place at the time. Subsequent legal challenges to the annexation were turned down by both the New Hanover County Superior Court and the NC State Court of Appeals."

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