SMITHFIELD -- Some folks who live near Johnston towns oppose allowing those towns to govern land uses two miles beyond their borders.

And last week, those folks called on state lawmakers to repeal the 1985 law allowing County Commissioners to grant wider planning authority to towns.

At a public hearing, Tony Tetterton of Johnston County Citizens for Justice said rural residents had no say in development decisions made by towns. And those decisions, he added, tend to lead to housing sprawl or poorly planned clusters of developments.

Tetterton lives just outside of Selma in an area where town leaders tried to recruit an ethanol plant. “I’ve heard several times planners say [the two-mile jurisdiction] will have minimal impact, but in my case, when they wanted to build an ethanol plant one mile from me, it became an issue,” Tetterton said. “If they built an apartment complex one mile down from where it shouldn’t be, then it will become a problem. I am not trying to put the fear of God in you that these towns are going to ruin you.”

Allen Mims was the only county commissioner to attend last week’s gathering. For the past 20 years, Mims has lived in Clayton’s planning jurisdiction.

He said living within a town’s shadow had its benefits and perils. “If I had a failed septic tank and a well, then the town would probably say, ‘We need to provide you with water, but Allen, you need to be annexed,’ ” Mims said. “That is much cheaper than having a house that is worth nothing with a failed well and a failed septic tank. It is better to be paying town taxes to have a house that is worth something.”

Archer Lodge Fire Chief Pete Barnes said he feared that wider planning authority was the first step toward forced annexation. “Our fire department has been there since 1958,” he said. “When they force it and take it all, how is the fire department going to be in business? It is taxation without representation. No representation whatsoever.”

Four Oaks-area resident Jim Munden opposed two-mile planning jurisdictions for the county’s towns.

“I don’t want someone I can’t vote for, elect or fire telling me what I can or cannot do with my personal property or land,” he said. “We are losing our rights. If they are going to tell me what I can do, I want to at least be able to vote for them.”

Others, such as David Edwards, said they did not want to be in Selma’s town limits. “I’ve had enough of Selma’s control, because if you go to the Town of Clayton, the Town of Smithfield and the Town of Benson, it’s a decent town to go into,” he said. “Selma is getting to where we’ve got a bad reputation. I definitely do not want to be a part of its ETJ.”

Ken Crabtree of Clayton said land-use authority usually boiled down to “power, politics and money.” “Whoever the Town Council is, whichever township you are in, they can control what land is developed around town,” he said. “Whoever the developer is, if he is in good with the politician, he can have the development done.”

State Reps. Leo Daughtry and J.H. Langdon were present at the public hearing. “I can promise you, your desires will be heard, and they have already been heard by all of us,” Daughtry said.