People living in a proposed annexation zone into the city of New Iberia adamantly on Wednesday voiced opposition to the plan during a meeting of the New Iberia Planning and Zoning Commission.

The residents said they have been misled by the city.

“There are a lot of things that need to come out in the open,” Danny Romero, who owns property at 616 W. U.S. Highway 90, said. “Why can’t we say what we can and can’t do with our property?”

Romero’s comments came during a commission meeting held to determine if the board would recommend the annexation plan for adoption by the New Iberia City Council. The board voted unanimously to recommend the action to the City Council.

Though members of the commission announced they did not have formal jurisdiction over the proposed annexation property because they dealt only with property inside the corporate limits of the city, commission member Lloyd Verret said  annexation was an important topic to discuss openly before the board.

“It is the most important gateway to the city,” Verret said.

Verret said he believed most of the people living in the area were in favor of coming into the New Iberia corporate limits.

“I have contacted the people in there and the majority signed and they are ready to come in,” Verret said.

Romero disputed this fact and said the majority of people living in the area had in fact not signed the petition.

According to a copy of the signed petition provided by the Iberia Parish Assessors Office dated Oct. 29, only two of the eight property owners in the annexation zone signed the petition: Kerney Hebert of 804 W. U.S. Highway 90 and Louis Hebert of 708 W. U.S. Highway 90.

This satisfied the legal requirements for proposed annexation, which require that a majority of resident property owners, a majority of resident registered voters and 25 percent of the value of the land owned by resident property owners must be in favor of annexation.

For the purposes of this law, resident property owners are defined as owners currently living on the property and using it as their primary address.

In this instance, two of the three resident property owners, five of the eight resident registered voters and 54 percent of the value of the land owned by resident property owners are in favor of annexation.

Romero also disputed the signatures of Louis Hebert, his wife, Maria Hebert, and their son Steven Hebert. Romero said Louis Hebert told him that he had been talked into signing the document.

“I spoke to them and they told me that they want to rescind their signatures off the petition because they had been duped,” Romero said.

Lafayette-based lawyer Mike Hebert, who has been advising the city on the annexation effort, said although there is some leeway allowing a person to remove his name from a petition, the law is not clear on how it can be done.

“After significant action by the city, the courts would not be as open to it,” Hebert said, noting that “significant action” is also up for interpretation.

The next step for the city is to reintroduce an agenda item to discuss annexation before the New Iberia City Council.

That topic was previously on the City Council’s agenda for the Dec. 7 meeting but was removed before any discussion could take place.