Henderson Mayor Brad Staton recently found a dream home that he and his wife want to buy. But the home is in Grantwood Hills subdivision and not within the city’s limits.
To serve as the mayor of Henderson, a person must live within the city limits.
To continue serving as Henderson’s mayor, Staton—as part of negotiations to buy the house—asked the owner of the residence at 656 S. Glenwood Dell Drive, Allison Eblen, if she would consider annexing her property into the city. Staton said she agreed.
State law requires that for a county property to be annexed into the city, that county property must touch city property. The property at 656 S. Glenwood Dell Drive doesn’t touch city property.
But a contiguous property to Eblen’s property does touch city limits. Staton said he also made an offer on that property—which is a wooded piece of land at 634 Glenwood Dell Drive—and the owners, Kevin and Robin Knight, also agreed to ask the city to annex their property into the city.
All the owners signed consent to annex agreements on Dec. 4.
Tuesday night, the Henderson City Commission voted 4-0 approving a municipal order that gives Henderson County Fiscal Court notice of the city’s intent to annex the properties. Staton abstained from voting.
Staton said that an agreement is in place for him to close on both properties contingent upon the annexations going through.
The mayor said it’s all legal and that he’s not getting anything that anyone else wouldn’t get also. He cited single-residence annexations that occurred in the past along Wathen Lane as examples.
The mayor said he had conversations with several city staffers, including the city attorney’s office, to make sure that everything is legal and that anybody in a similar situation can also get their property annexed.
Staton said it is something that “anybody in the county” with property bordering city limits can do.
Kentucky Revised Statutes 81A.412 states that a city can annex “if each of the owners of record of the land to be annexed gives prior consent in writing to the annexation.”
It further states, “When a city has obtained the prior written consent of each owner of record of the land to be annexed, the city may enact a single ordinance finally annexing the land described in the ordinance.”
Staton said the home he intends to buy checked all the boxes. And he was so excited to find it because he and his wife had been looking for a new home for about three years and hadn’t found anything. But the 656 S. Glenwood home is “exactly what we want.”
He said he’d looked at two homes being built in the new Bentley Point subdivision, but the shape and two-story structures didn’t suit his family. He had been very interested in a home in his current neighborhood, Balmoral, but it was snatched up quickly.
If Staton were to move into the 656 S. Glenwood Dell Dr. residence after annexation, he would not receive the full benefits of city residents, he said. He would not get trash, recycling or leaf pickup, he said. The road the house is located on will continue to be a county road. City police and fire services could technically still come to the residence, he said.
“I’m just trying to get the house that I want and go through the legal channels to do it,” he said.
The assessed value for the residence and land at 656 S. Glenwood Dell Drive is $360,000, according to the Henderson County Property Valuation Administrator’s website.
The assessed value of the land at 634 Glenwood Dell Drive is $45,000, according to the Henderson County PVA’s website.
