A state court recently voided an annexation by the Town of Awendaw because the town didn’t bother to follow state law in the annexation process.

Without getting too technical, the town used a 10 foot wide strip of land through the Francis Marion National Forest to connect the town to a pocket of private land within the national forest boundaries.

Awendaw has used this process several times since 1994 to annex pockets of private land located within the overall confines of the national forest property. The strips of national forest land were the only way Awendaw could bring town property adjacent to the private land areas it annexed.