Counties stray from straight and narrow.

• Author: Maley, Frank
• Position: Alamance and Guilford counties

Sometimes it's best to take a hard-line approach. That's what Alamance and Guilford counties haven't done in administering the boundary between them set in 1771. It looks straight on most maps. But zoom in, and the county line arcs about 350 feet toward Greensboro, says Roger Barnes, N.C. state and county boundary surveyor. Because surveying tools of the 18th century weren't as precise as those today, county lines intended to be straight usually bow a bit. In fact, as with many county lines, nobody is exactly sure where the Guilford-Alamance one is.

Tax and planning boundaries between Guilford and Alamance are even worse, says Jenks Crayton, Guilford County tax director. Planning jurisdictions overlap, some parcels are taxed by both counties, and some are not taxed at all. For most of the last two centuries, few people cared because the land was mostly undeveloped. But as more homes and businesses have sprung up, the vagueness has created problems, including confusion about which county should answer emergency calls. To help solve them, Crayton put a resolution before Guilford commissioners asking the state for a survey. If the county line were straight, as the legislature intended, Guilford might gain...