LONG BEACH, Miss. (WLOX) — A legal battle over a proposed annexation in Long Beach continued in chancery court this week.
The city wants to take in about a square mile of land currently owned by Harrison County, including the Long Beach Industrial Park. Opponents argue the annexation is not necessary.
Long Beach Mayor Tim Pierce said the annexation is part of planning for the city’s future growth toward Interstate 10.
“This is part of the economic growth that will allow us as a city to grow and then move more towards the north to I-10.”
He said the industrial park started around 1982 and that Long Beach has supplied services to it without being reimbursed.
“And Long Beach has always supplied services to the industrial park and has never been reimbursed.”
Pierce said many residents were unaware the industrial park was not part of the city.
“When I was campaigning, I’d walk the streets and 80, 90% of the people did not even realize that the industrial park wasn’t in the city of Long Beach,” he said.
Pierce said FEMA regulations after Hurricane Katrina placed the majority of the city’s business district in a VE zone, which requires construction on stilts 20 to 25 feet in the air.
“So for the future of Long Beach and the future growth of Long Beach, we have to annex and we have to go north,” he said.
Pierce pursued annexation of the industrial park when he served as an alderman in the 1990s, he said. He said a 1982 agreement made Long Beach police and fire the main providers of those services in the industrial park.
“It’s not fair for the 17-some-odd thousand people that live in Long Beach and the 312 businesses in Long Beach to pay for services that are in the industrial park in the county,” he said. “It’s just not fair to the taxpayers of City of Long Beach.”
Pierce said a ruling in the case is expected the first week of November.
“I feel good about the case because it just makes sense,” he said. “Everything we’ve done as far as the hearing so far, the trial is, everything’s making sense. I mean, it should be in the city limits of Long Beach.”
Pierce said some businesses believed the annexation was a “tax grab,” but he said the additional taxes paid to Long Beach would total about $400,000 a year.
The city spends close to $1 million a year to fund the fire station located in the industrial park, which is staffed by Long Beach firefighters using Long Beach trucks and equipment, Pierce said.
“Its primary reason for being there is for the industrial park,” he said.
Pierce said neither Harrison County nor the development commission has opposed the annexation.
“Usually when you have an annexation, the county opposes it, the development commission will oppose it,” he said. “No opposition from the county, the development commission. No opposition against it, because I think they realize it should be in the city limits of Long Beach. That’s very unusual. And that kind of makes me feel good that we’re on the right path, doing the right thing.”
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Pierce also discussed the Gateway Project, which officially opens Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 5 p.m. with a ribbon cutting.
“The previous boards had great vision,” he said. “What they had put in place and the motions that they started were well thought out.”
Pierce said the project area serves as a front door to the city.
“You can really come over the Bay St. Louis Bridge and see nothing but beauty,” Pierce said. “And in Bay St. Louis, past Pass Christian, you come to Long Beach and with the vacant land that we have from one end of our town to the other, it looks like it really hadn’t ever rebounded. And it really hadn’t. This will put a front door onto our city and onto Jeff Davis Ave.”
A final phase of the Gateway Project, which will add five pavilions and furnishings along the beachfront, is in the design phase and will go out for bid, Pierce said.
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He said Long Beach will also host Cruisin’ the Coast events Monday, starting with a Show and Shine event at 9 a.m., followed by the Long Beach parade and activities at the harbor with a band and refreshments.
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