Inside or outside the city limits?

pgault · Joined: 14 May 2007 Posts: 476

I have never understood why we even have to separate towns and cities to 'out of the city limits' and 'inside the city limits'. I know some places may have miles and miles inbetween the two, but as in our case, why can't it just all be plain ol' "Lumberton". Treat everyone the same with taxes, services offered, etc... Lumberton really is not all that big and 'out of town' here is not somewhere way out in the boonies away from civilization; it's just right across the street.

I've never lived outside the city limits of any place. What are the benefits of doing so?

I've heard of many of the drawbacks. I know people that live outside the city limits and I have heard they have had problems with garbage services, police/sherrif response, etc...

If you live outside the city limits, are the taxes that much less than the rest of us inside the limits or something?

Anyway, just wondering what the main differences were Smile

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Lupine · Joined: 11 May 2008 Posts: 103

I think Lumberton might be somewhat of an exception to the general rule when it comes to this. One of the advantages of living outside the city limits might be that when you're in the county, you don't have to worry about paying county property taxes as well as a city property tax. I'm not sure if there's any other "advantages" but that's the first that comes to mind.

Something else you touched on is law enforcement response times and general availability of those services. If you live outside an incorporated area, you have to rely on the sheriff's department. Typically, in rural counties such as those surrounding ours and the one we live in, the unincorporated areas are bigger than those that are incorporated, as opposed to say Harris or even Jefferson county. If you have 3 or 4 deputies covering a large area, naturally it's going to take them a little longer to get to where they're going especially if they were on one side of the county and have to beat feet to the other side. Usually in a city your response times will be a little faster simply because of the smaller area the police officers have to cover and availability of those officers.

LumbertonSupporter · Joined: 27 Jul 2007 Posts: 66

Your actually both right on target....... The largest differences tend to show during election times, and county elections can very much effect the city just like a city election can effect the county. The largest non-election times would be garbage pickup prices, police coverage, and mosquito spraying. Past that there are very few differences MUD, ESD, and school district tend to keep alot of the things the same out in the "county"