BATON ROUGE - Over a dozen homeowners in the St. George area want to be part of the City of Baton Rouge.

The group of 15, plus a lake, are in the small Willow Ridge subdivision off of Jefferson Highway. A petition was filed with the city-parish back in June.

The metro council will introduce the petition on Thursday, Sept. 10, and further discuss the matter during a meeting at the end of the month.

But St. George spokesperson Andrew Murrell says in the end, it's not going to happen.

"They can annex in if they truly want to. Metro council can approve them, just like they've approved some of these previous annexations, but the truth is they are outside of the time delay and when you're outside of the time delay, it requires a different process for annexation and at some point, those annexations will be null and void once our lawsuit is finished," Murrell said.

The suit between the city and St. George is currently in the discovery phase. The pandemic has pushed everything back until at least next year.

The total number on the petition makes up less than half of the forty-plus homes in the subdivision.

And the group isn't looking to annex the entire neighborhood. Murrell says it would be a nightmare in the event of an emergency.

"Your house is in St. George, but your house is in Baton Rouge. How does that work from a first responder standpoint? Are you going to be concerned that no one's going to know how to respond to your house fire or your crime issue?"

The public hearing will take place on September 23.