Residents around Sopchoppy ask for annexation into city

By WILLIAM SNOWDEN

wsnowden@thewakullanews.net

At the Sopchoppy City Commission meeting this week, there were more than a dozen residents from the Buckhorn area, just outside the city limits, asking to be annexed into the city.

City Commissioner Richard Harden said he supports those who would be part of the city.

If you look it up, Sopchoppy has a population of 502 people, he said at the city commission meeting on Monday, March 8. In reality, he said, the community of Sopchoppy – and those people who consider themselves a part of it – is much larger.

Maybe not as big as some would like. As Harden noted, responding to a speaker who noted Buckhorn and Sopchoppy share the same ZIP Code, by that measure they would create a city bigger than Jacksonville – since 32358 stretches from St. Teresa to St. Marks.

Sopchoppy is moving forward with a planned vote on an involuntary annexation that would move its eastern boundary towards the traditionally black Buckhorn community. The city will officially notify Wakulla County next week of its intention to hold a vote on annexation during the November general election.

With voluntary annexations for landowners after that, Sopchoppy could absorb Buckhorn within three years.

Resident Alfred Nelson, who works as director of the county Housing Department, asked for a commitment from city commissioners that, if residents did the legwork to get needed voluntary annexations, the board would support the effort.

Harden and City Commissioner Jim Stokley indicated their support. Mayor Robert Greener was more cautious: "I would support the majority," he said.

Both Mayor Greener and City Commissioner Eddie Evans sought to remove whatever misconceptions might be fueling the rush to join the city: Being annexed doesn't mean that, the next day, you've got streetlights and sidewalks, Evans said.

And it certainly doesn't include instant access to sewer.

The City of Sopchoppy is getting sewer service installed now, connecting to the county connection that extended to a business development in Buckhorn.

Among the problems with extending the Sopchoppy city limits immediately into Buckhorn are tracts of vacant land – buffers which, according to City Attorney Dan Cox, do not match the city's urban density. Much of the land is owned by the Alberta Crate Company.

If the city isn't interested in annexation, Nelson noted the possibility of Buckhorn incorporating as a separate municipality.

The only problem with that, Cox said, is that Buckhorn is within two miles of Sopchoppy – and too close under state law to create its own city.

Nelson indicated he would be seeking help through Wakulla County's legislative delegation to work on extending Sopchoppy's limits.

It's not only residents to the east who want to join Sopchoppy – but in all directions around the city.

Residents from communities such as Curtis Mill and neighborhoods such as Indian Summer have expressed an interest in being part of the city.