Long Beach officials hear presentation on possible annexation

LONG BEACH, MS (WLOX) - The City of Long Beach is growing. Tuesday night city officials, with an eye on that growth, received a presentation detailing a plan to annex land north of the city.

The first Board of Aldermen meeting of 2019 in Long Beach gave elected officials an early look at an annexation study aimed at opening up residential land for future use.

“We really need to be prepared to look at being able to move farther north because we realized what we were facing with our beach front and limitations that we’re dealing with there,” said Mayor George Bass.

The study is an expansion of a study that was commissioned in 2011. This version of the study was approved in October. Bass thought, with the current rate of growth in Long Beach, an expansion will be needed sooner rather than later.

“We’ve got three subdivisions right now and 300 homes on the books and ready to be developed or in development right now that are taking a lot of the residential land we have available, that’s viable, that’s not within a flood plain,” he said. “It’s only fair for us to look at where we can go and gain some land that we can possibly expand and do that growth that the city needs.”

Phase one of the study took property type, estimated value and sales tax, as well as departmental requirements of a possible annexation into account.

"We've gotta have fire, law enforcement, public works, there's a lot of comprehensive plans that have got to be done," Bass said. "Zoning's gotta be done. There's a lot to look at when you're doing a study and this is not an overnight process. So we're taking it one step at a time and moving forward."

Bass believes annexation has always been an option, and moving north into the county is the right move.

“Looking north is the only way,” he said. “We’ve got the Gulf to the south. We’ve got Pass to the west and Gulfport to the east. So the only place we have that’s viable is to look north, and I think that we’re doing the right thing to leave our options open.”

The board voted to move forward to phase two, which will include details figures on the financial impact of an annexation.

That phase of the study is expected to be presented in March.

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