Mayor’s office quietly revises Mobile annexation proposals

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s office quietly has revised three of four annexation proposals for expanding the city limits.

The mayor’s staff unveiled the proposed maps this month. Each would boost the population beyond 200,000 residents.

But three of those maps are slightly different than the ones originally released. One neighborhood south of Old Shell Road and west of Cody Road – which is completely surrounded by the city – has been removed. City officials said that was done because of the difficulty of holding an annexation election in a place with no commercial or public buildings.

At the same time, those revised maps add some houses between Dawes Road and Mobile Regional Airport. Candace Cooksey,, a spokeswoman for the mayor, called that a “mapping error.”

The alterations change the numbers only lightly. The proposal the mayor’s office calls “Map A” would reduce the number of potential new residents by 285. The new versions of maps B and C have 257 and 198 more people, respectively, than before.

PFM Group, a firm hired by the Mobile City Council, is verifying the information supplied by the administration. After that, the council would have to decide whether to set annexations elections in the proposed neighborhoods. Resident in those areas then would decide whether their neighborhoods should join the city.

Updated at 10:41 p.m. to correct an error that misattributed a statement by Candace Cooksey.

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