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  Updated Jun 16, 2000       
    
  
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_Seven Lakes Looking at Incorporation
 
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BY THOMAS DAIL
 _Residents of Seven Lakes packed the West End Elementary School auditorium
Sunday afternoon to hear the pros and cons of incorporating their community. 
As an incorporated municipality, Seven Lakes would receive $755,600 in shared
tax revenue from the state, but would have to take down its gates to get most
of it, according to Bill Evans, a member of the Committee to Study
Incorporation. Currently, Seven Lakes gets no shared tax revenue.Evans
addressed some of the written questions that residents had said they wanted
answered before responding to a poll on the matter. One question showed a
concern common among residents."Since most people moved here because of the
security gates, why would we want to lose the gates in favor of
incorporation?" the respondent asked. A round of applause followed when Evans
read the question to the audience."That’s a statement, not a question,"
shouted one audience member during the applause.A law passed last year by the
General Assembly limits the amount of shared state tax funds a gated
municipality may receive, Evans said, although no law prohibits a gated
municipality. As a gated town, Seven Lakes would receive about $77,000 — the
residential part of Powell Bill Funding, earmarked for street
expenditures."It’s never been a law that you can’t keep your gates when you
incorporate," Evans said.Instead of landowners’ dues, property owners in Seven
Lakes would pay a municipal property tax. Evans estimated that the proposed
municipality would need to set the tax rate at 25 cents for every $100 of
taxable property to raise enough for a $1.6 million annual budget. That tax
rate would raise $699,000, he said."For some people, the property taxes would
be higher (than landowner’s dues)," Evans told the audience. "For some, it
would be lower. It all depends on the value of your property."Landowners would
be able to deduct property taxes from both state and federal income tax, said
EvansThe Landowners’ Association’s $100,000 reserve would roll over into
municipal coffers, and interest on reserves would make up the rest of the
revenue side of the budget.An eight-officer police force would cost the
village $329,000, and roads and maintenance would consume $374,000, according
to the preliminary budget. The budget would give $228,000 to recreation and
parks and $271,000 to administration, leaving $280,000 for operations and
$118,000 for reserve.Another benefit of incorporation would be the unification
of the north, south and west sides into one community, Evans said.The
municipal government would have control over zoning and would adopt current
covenants passed by the Landowner’s Association, Evans said.If 75 percent of
the people who respond to the committee’s poll say they want to continue
studying incorporation, a new incorporation committee would form to work out
the details, Evan said."To make this happen you need five men on the committee
who are dedicated to incorporation," he said.Next, the committee would need to
submit a detailed proposal for incorporation, along with 2,000 signatures, to
the Joint Legislative Commission. The commission would study the case, write
the bill and send it to the N.C. House of Representatives."You really have to
take a good, long, hard look before you do anything," said Bob Ewing, the
county commissioner from that area. "In the final analysis, you have to figure
out how you are going to pay for the services you want to provide. That’s what
we do on a county level."One resident who submitted a question asked how
incorporation would affect property values in the gated community."I have no
idea," Evans said. "You’d have to talk to a real estate person to find
out."The village could control access to the community’s amenities with
stickers on automobiles, with its police force and with help from the Moore
County Sheriff’s Department, Evans said.Committee members will announce the
results of the poll at the next meeting of the Seven Lakes Civic Group on
Sunday, May 21. The responses to the poll must be in by May 1. 

"