Conway to remain pocked by doughnut holes

CONWAY -- A 2-year-old plan to convince owners of unincorporated property surrounded by Conway city limits to become part of the city has produced few if any takers.

The new plan, said city administrator Bill Graham, is to wait until owners of the unincorporated property known as doughnut holes request water and sewer service or, for those who already have it, until ownership changes. The city would require annexation in return for new or continued service, Graham said.

City Councilwoman Jean Timbes isn’t surprised at the lack of enthusiasm from the owners of the doughnut hole property.

“They don’t want to pay city taxes,” she said. “To make a change that’s going to cost you financially, you need a reason.”

The city charges incorporated property owners half in water and sewer rates as it does those in doughnut holes. But the offset in cutting that cost isn’t enough to cover the extra property-tax bill the owners would face.

The city announced in January 2010 that it wanted to end the existence of enclaves, as it calls doughnut holes. They’re inefficient to a city trying to engineer orderly, quality growth, he said, and can actually cost taxpayers money when the city cleans up unincorporated property to protect values of the incorporated property around it.

Generally, Graham said, the city’s enclaves are relatively small in size. Of 48 total properties, just eight are larger than 10 acres apiece and just three of those encompass more than 25 acres.

In all, the city has 513 acres of doughnut holes, the majority of which are undeveloped. The rest, though, are homes and businesses that resisted annexation as Conway grew around them.

The owners, Graham said, “enjoy the quality of life in our community without participating in the cost.”

Some states allow municipalities to annex property regardless of what the owner says. But S.C. law provides for forced annexation only under very specific circumstances. Cities seeking to annex property must get the approval of 75 percent of the owners of the identified property in order to annex it.

In those cases, some who don’t want annexation could be incorporated.

Conway has since closed the loophole that allowed for doughnut holes by requiring all new city utility customers to be within the city’s corporate limits. In other words, to be annexed.

Graham said city officials made some telephone calls as part of the 2010 campaign. Some city council members talked in person to doughnut hole property owners.

But to no avail.

“We want to fill in the doughnut holes,” Timbes said, “but not enough to bring in mad people.”