Baldwin County voters will have three constitutional amendments on the November 5 ballot. The three proposed landmark districts cover the communities of Stapleton, Whitehouse Fork and Bon Secour.
The amendments on the ballot read, “Relating to Baldwin County, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 2022, to define the [Bon Secour, White House Fork, Stapleton] Landmark District within the county and to prohibit the annexation by local law of any property within the district into any municipality except under certain conditions.”
Similar amendments were previously passed for the unincorporated communities of Barnwell, Rosinton and Stockton.
“The first Landmark District was up in Stockton many years ago,” State Rep. Francis Holk-Jones (R-Foley) explained. “And no other county in our state has Landmark Districts like ours, with the exception of the Canoe Landmark District in Escambia County, which my colleague Rep. Alan Baker sponsored and passed a few years back. These districts are very much a ‘Built in Baldwin’ creation, courtesy of some of our previous legislative leaders like the late Walter Penry and my predecessor, the late, great Steve McMillan.”
The landmark districts would be protected from legislative annexation into city limits if passed.
“The Landmark Districts do not block contiguous annexation by a municipality, nor would they block a referendum annexation if it were requested by residents who wanted to vote about whether or not to annex into a nearby municipality,” Holk-Jones said. “They don’t put you on the path to being a municipality; they don’t come with grant funds or any sort of powers or rights that formally incorporating as a municipality would do.”
State Sen. Chris Elliott (R-Josephine), a former Baldwin County Commissioner, sponsored a companion bill in the Senate to allow for an amendment. He said it’s important to block state lawmakers from deciding to annex property locally.
“Currently, without a landmark district, the legislature could simply pick a piece of area of the unincorporated county or a single parcel or multiple parcels, and by passage of a local law, that land would then be in a particular city one way or the other,” Elliott told 1819 News. “And so, that landmark district essentially precludes the legislature from doing that by amendment to the Constitution of the state of Alabama.”
Elliott said he supports landmark districts because he supports private property rights.
“I would hate to think that somebody may wake up one day and think that when they went to bed, they were in unincorporated Baldwin County and when they woke up, the legislature had decided to say, ‘No, you belong to the city of whatever,” he added.
Elliott also said it is crucial as Baldwin County grows to protect the history and the identity of communities that have existed for over 100 years.
“As somebody who goes to church in Bon Secour and loves that community, and the same thing with Whitehouse and Stapleton, I think those places on the map are important and their history is important,” he said. “And this is a good way to designate them officially as a particular area.”
State Rep. Donna Givens (R-Loxley) sponsored the House bill for the Stapleton community. She wants to allow property owners in historic communities to have a vote.
“It’s all about giving the people a choice, giving them a vote and letting them have a say about the future of their community – a future that certainly does include their wonderful histories and traditions as some of Baldwin County’s oldest communities,” Givens said.
“Baldwin County is blessed to have many of these communities that have generational residents and a legacy to preserve and protect what is theirs,” she added. “Landmark districts, through limiting the ability for areas within them to be annexed, are certainly something that allows for that protection and preservation that those communities have always wanted.”
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email erica.thomas@1819news.com.
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