The Kanawha County Planning Commission will hear a proposal Wednesday evening for Clendenin to annex land along parts of U.S. 119 and W.Va. 4.
The proposal, which will be discussed in a public hearing at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Kanawha County Courthouse, would take in 166 houses and seven businesses.
Clendenin Mayor Gary Bledsoe said he wants to annex around a mile in each direction from the city's current borders. That would include the Kelly Hill area, Osbourne cemetery and Cromwell Estates near U.S. 119 and Cobb Station near W.Va. 4.
For Bledsoe, the point of the annexation is to provide more services for some of the people in the unincorporated area. He mentioned that annexation would allow those areas to have 24-hour police protection from the Clendenin Police Department.
"A municipality is like a baby," said Bledsoe. "They either grow or die. The town of Clendenin hasn't grown for 30 years."
Clendenin is attempting to annex the area through minor boundary adjustment. To make the annexation happen, Clendenin has to submit a proposal to the Kanawha County Commission that fulfills a list of requirements. The planning commission can either recommend or oppose the city's proposal, but the County Commission will have the final say.
One of the requirements involved makes the County Commission take into account the opinions of the people affected by the annexation and Bledsoe has said that opinion is split at 50/50. County commissioners have a petition from residents in the Kelly Hill area that oppose the annexation.
Wednesday's public hearing is to see whether or not the proposal has met the requirements and to get a feel for public opinion.
Bledsoe wants to know the public's opinion as well. "I want to know what the opinions are and what they think," he said.
The last time that Clendenin tried to annex territory was in 2010, when town officials tried unsuccessfully to annex U.S. 119 from the town limits to the interstate highway.
In December, an attempt by St. Albans to annex land along W.Va. 817 and U.S. 60 was delayed by Kanawha County commissioners.
Reach Daniel Desrochers at dan.desrochers@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow @drdesrochers on Twitter.