Rome City votes to annex parcels totaling 210.04 acres

Each ordinance refers to one area being annexed that’s identified in the amended fiscal plan.

The ordinances take effect 90 days after publication, provided there is no remonstrance during that period, according to Town Attorney Greg Eberhard. Eberhard read the ordinances and the resolutions prior to the council’s vote.

The amended fiscal plan and ordinances remove the disputed parcels included in the original proposed annexation that totaled 224.73 acres. The council decided to amend the ordinance after several property owners spoke out against the original version at public hearings in December and last month, and on the advice last month of Eberhard.

Letters were sent earlier this month to the property owners explaining the changes.

Excluded from the ordinance was disputed land on Bayview Drive held by seven property owners, totaling 0.57 acres; land held by three property owners off of C.R. 850N, between Limberlost Trail and Antler’s Point, totaling 7.094 acres; and a pond and wooded land totaling 14.115 acres owned by Regina Rivas.

The largest parcel within the amended ordinance and fiscal plan, totaling 83 acres, is the Sylvan Cellars Event Center and Schemerhorn Farms land, on the north side of Northport Road. The owners agreed not to oppose being annexed when the town chose to run sewer and water service to the site.

The ordinances indicate no additional expenses will be incurred by the town with the annexation. The property owners are receiving city services.

In other business, the council heard a progress report from Jean Westrick on the Mother Mary of Mercy Center (Sylvan Springs). Westrick is a director of Vast Domain Foundation Inc., which acquired the property last March from the Virginia Westrick Foundation.

The 68-acre site on the south side of Northport Road on Rome City’s north side is now called the Mother Mercy Center, and the Vast Domain Foundation has changed its name to the Mother Mercy Foundation, according to Westrick.

The Mother Mercy Center is now the permanent home of the Franciscan Brothers Minor, a religious order whose members take vows of poverty. Six of the order are currently residing on the property, and in May a new group of eight members will move into the townhouse on the site.

Westrick’s foundation is also recruiting corporate not-for-profits to reside on the property. “We have every reason to believe we will be here for the long term,” she said.

Capital improvements are still underway, and the property is not ready for public visits yet.