Here’s why you would want to be annexed:
🚓 Enhanced police protection (avg. emergency response time in the city is 7 minutes versus 15 minutes in Greenville County)
🚒 Enhanced fire protection (avg. emergency response time in the city is 4 minutes and you’ll no longer have to pay fire district taxes)
🚰 Lower water rates (about 33% lower than Greenville County)
🏙 Participate on city boards + commissions
♻ Residential trash, recyclable, street cleaning and yard waste services (they’ll take almost anything from your curb)
💵 Typically, you’ll pay less taxes in the city than in the county (however, this can depend on what tax map/fire district your home is located)
*Click here for more benefits
Why the City of Greenville wants to annex you:
🏢 More individuals participating in city government
🌳 Better urban planning + parks
💰 Increased revenue sharing + revenues base to support services
👥 Stronger sense of community
🏗 Assistance to developers for construction cost of sewer lines, landscaping, roads + other improvements on public property (like Verdae, the mills + the Village).
🍸 Encourage the hospitality industry + jobs by providing better funding (think Greenridge Shopping Center + Magnolia Park -- both annexed within the past 10 years)
Thinking ‘do my taxes go up if I’m annexed’? It’s a fair question, and it really just depends on what tax/fire district your home is located within. Some districts cost more (or less) based on how many homes are within the district + the allotment of city services. To see how your property tax changes based on your tax district, click here.
DYK: Our city is the most dense in the state and Greenville county is the most populated in South Carolina.
Property owners (whose property touches the city-county line) can petition the city to annex them. If a group of property owners want to be annexed, they must file a petition. Then, electors in the area petition city council for an election.