Clendenin has withdrawn its proposal to annex about 170 residents and seven businesses. Town officials said that continuing to do so would be "fruitless."
The Clendenin City Council and mayor came to the conclusion in their Jan. 20 meeting that they were treated unfairly by the Kanawha County Planning Commission and it wouldn't be worthwhile to pursue the annexation.
In a Jan. 21 letter to the planning commission, Clendenin Mayor Gary Bledsoe said the town was giving up the attempt.
"After attending the Kanawha County Planning Commission meeting on Jan. 13, 2016 and listening to all the misinformation and some out right untruths, the Clendenin Town Council has decided at this time to pursue this project NO further. We feel that any further efforts in this matter would be fruitless."
At the meeting, about 17 people spoke in opposition to Clendenin's annexation attempt and only one who was not a member of the city government spoke in favor.
Despite the fact that Clendenin said that many people who spoke weren't going to be affected, County Engineer John Luoni said that most of the people who signed in were from the affected area.
"From what we could tell, most of the people there were from the area that was being annexed," Luoni said.
The Clendenin City Council did not think they were treated fairly by the planning commission because they were not given a chance to rebut the overwhelming opposition to the proposal.
"I think that they're disappointed and that's reasonable" said Kanawha County Commissioner Dave Hardy. "But I was certainly willing to give them a full hearing."
Clendenin was proposing an annexation by minor boundary adjustment, which does not require a vote, but instead approval by the Kanawha County Commission.
Before the proposal can get to the county commission, it is put up for a public hearing before the Kanawha County Planning Commission, which offers a recommendation to the county commission for approval or rejection.
The proposal would have annexed around a mile to the east, west and north of Clendenin, which would have included the Kelly Hill area, Osbourne cemetery and Cromwell Estates near U.S. 119 and Cobb Station near W.Va. 4.
If Clendenin had continued with the annexation, it would have been heard by the Kanawha County Commission, who would have had final say on whether or not to approve the minor boundary adjustment.
In an interview with the Gazette-Mail before the meeting, Clendenin mayor Gary Bledsoe said that the reason he wanted the annexation was because it was time for the city of Clendenin to grow.
"A municipality is like a baby," Bledsoe said. "They either grow or die. The town of Clendenin hasn't grown for 30 years."
The annexation had not been brought to the county commission because Clendenin was missing two parts of the documents required for a minor boundary adjustment. The city needed to have a written metes and bounds document, which gives a latitude and longitude for the areas affected, and a financial impact statement.
Reach Daniel Desrochers at dan.desrochers@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow @drdesrochers on Twitter.