In front of a standing-room-only crowd at Semmes’ brand-new city hall, Mayor Brandon Van Hook had one message to residents of the area: Join us.

“We have a lot of plans for this year,” he said at the end of the meeting. “Annexation is a big part of it, and we’re excited to move forward.”

Concerned about the city of Mobile’s proposal to annex territory west of its city limits, south of Semmes, Van Hook and other officials called the town hall meeting Thursday to discuss the benefits of joining the city.

Importantly, even though Mobile’s annexation plans may have spurred the meeting, it wasn’t about competing with Mobile, Van Hook said.

“We’re not going to get into the Mobile vs. Semmes narrative here,” Van Hook said.