Alamance-Orange border marks 159 years of informality

Counties could swap residents

To the frustration of dozens of homeowners, Alamance and Orange county officials want to re-establish a border plotted 159 years ago by surveyors who stretched a chain 23 miles along the north-south dividing line.

Increasing suburbanization is triggering the line shift.

For years, large rural tracts that straddled the 1849 line would be placed in one county or another for tax purposes via handshake agreements between the tax collectors of the two counties.

But that's causing headaches as many of those large tracts are being bought and subdivided for development, particularly in and around Mebane.

Along the border between Alamance and Orange counties, some new homeowners have gone back and forth between the counties, trying to find out where to pay their taxes and who will provide them with police, fire and school services.

"The lack of clarity has created a fair amount of confusion and is likely to continue to do so unless we draw a line that everyone agrees on," said Barry Jacobs, chairman of the Orange County Board of Commissioners. "The barn corners and trees that the old line followed are difficult to find. Sometimes it's difficult for people to close on a house because they're not sure which county they're in."

Re-establishing the 1849 line would send 74 dwellings from Orange to Alamance and 53 from Alamance to Orange. It would have to be approved by both counties' boards of commissioners, but that might not happen for many months.

Few on either side support the decision.

"We work in Orange County, vote in Orange County, shop in Orange County, volunteer in Orange County," said Betsy Hilborn, who moved to her home at the confluence of Cane Creek and the Haw River in 2000. "It's our community."

Hilborn is concerned that emergency responders will have more difficulty getting to her rural tract from Alamance than from Orange, in part because Alamance is on the other side of the two bodies of water hemming in her land.

"We would be an orphaned island of Alamance," she said.

On the other side of the border, Bob and Tara Heffernan worry about their taxes nearly doubling if they're moved to Orange County. Alamance County's tax rate is 58 cents per $100 of property valuation, compared with 99.8 cents per $100 in Orange County.

"We even looked for a home in Orange County, but we couldn't afford the taxes," Tara Heffernan said. "And I have three children, all of whom go to Alamance County schools, which are two miles from my house, tops."

Both Hilborn and Heffernan said the prevailing sentiment at two recent public hearings about the line change was "leave things how they are."

But Alamance and Orange officials say that's not really an option, though there are ways to lessen the consequences.

Jacobs and Clyde Albright, assistant county attorney for Alamance, said existing property owners could remain in their current county after the line was re-established.Then the property would revert to its rightful county once the parcel changed hands.

But residents fear the counties are paying them lip service and could revoke grandfather clauses at any time.

"We're worried we can't trust what's happening," said Mark Peifer, one of Hilborn's neighbors.

Another question is schools. Neither county can force the school districts to let students remain once they're residents of another county.

Sixteen Orange County students would shift to Alamance, officials say. It's not clear how many Alamance County students would come to Orange.

Albright said he understands people's frustrations but says the line hasn't really changed since 1849. Rather, county officials have told people they live in one county or another -- erroneously, Albright says.

"The confusion didn't happen overnight, so the transition isn't going to happen overnight, either," said Albright, who will urge Alamance leaders to allow current border dwellers to keep their residence status.

"Let's honor this line, let's put some real monuments down so it never comes up again, and then let's treat equitably and fairly those who have relied on what their real estate agent told them."