I’ve been too busy lately to post on the current hot button topic in Madison County: the proposed deannexation of 263 acres from Madison.  The property would then be annexed by Huntsville.  The site at Zierdt Road and Madison Boulevard has long been rumored to be the location of a retail development similar to The Summit in Birmingham.

The deannexation was a surprise to the leaders of Madison who learned of it when they read an advertisement for the proposal in the Huntsville Times.  According to the Huntsville Times:

State law requires that proposed legislation be advertised locally four times before it can be introduced to the Legislature.

It will be eligible for introduction on April 1.

Sen. Lowell Barron is the man behind the legislation to steal the land away from Madison.  Barron appears to be in the pocket of local developer Lewis Breland.

State Sen. Lowell Barron says he drafted possible legislation to deannex Breland’s property as a favor to Breland, a longtime acquaintance.

“I know very little about that,” Barron, D-Fyffe, said in a telephone interview on Monday. “I got it drafted and advertised, but I do not know who will introduce it.”

So Lowell Barron is willing to draft legislation, basically sight unseen, to steal 263 from a city for an “acquaintance.”  I wonder how much campaign money his “acquaintance” has given him.  Barron didn’t even have the courtesy to call Sen. Arthur Orr about the deal, whose district the property is in.  One shouldn’t be surprised that Barron, a sharply partisan Democrat, wouldn’t contact Orr, a Republican.

Barron is also pursuing this legislation against the wishes of fellow Democratic Senator Tom Butler of Madison.  You might recall that Butler was one of the dissident Democrats who sought to caucus with the GOP in order to wrench control of power from Barron.  This is Barron’s spiteful form of payback.

Most of Huntsville’s leaders are playing coy at this point.  The hint of increased tax revenue might cause many of them to lose their sense of decency.  Only Huntsville City Councilman Glenn Watson has gone on record as opposing the deannexation, kind of.

Watson said he believes deannexation is wrong. However, if the legislation is approved and Breland asks to annex into the city, Watson said the city has never turned down an annexation request.

“If I had to vote today, I’d vote no,” Watson said. “But things change over a period of two or three or four months.”

Watson’s intentions can’t be considered entirely noble.  He has already announced plans to oppose Madison County Commissioner Faye Dyer, whose district includes Madison proper.  Watson could simply be saying the right things to get in the good graces of prospective voters.

I’ll be contacting my City Council representative today to get her opinion on the deannexation.

The whole situation seems to be nothing more than a negotiation tactic by Breland.  He’s using one of his crony legislators to strong arm the city of Madison into offering better incentives.

I personally think the proposal is a horrible idea.  It would compromise the good relationship that exists between Huntsville and Madison.  The precedent alone is revolting.  It’s little more than another show of arrogance by our elected officials in Montgomery who think they can march into someone else’s district and redraw the city borders.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Thursday, March 22nd, 2007 at 5:34 am and is filed under Madison County, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.