Druid Hills Considering Becoming Part of Atlanta
Decatur Metro | August 1, 2014 | 9:10 amThe rush for cityhood continues. From the AJC…
Residents in the Druid Hills neighborhood, one of the oldest and wealthiest communities in the Atlanta area, will soon consider a key question about their future: Should they stay or go?In coming months, residents will decide whether to remain part of unincorporated DeKalb County or join the city of Atlanta.
The Druid Hills area, which includes Emory University and the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, has the potential to change Atlanta’s tax base, educational system, racial makeup and political landscape if it’s annexed.
About 4,500 Druid Hills households will be mailed informational materials about their options in the next two or three weeks. Later this fall, they’ll be asked to complete surveys about their preference, said Anne Wallace, chairwoman of the Druid Hills Civic Association 2014 Citizens Survey Committee.
And for those of you wondering whether Decatur is any part of this conversation, there’s this…
Some Druid Hills residents have suggested that their neighborhood become a city, join the proposed city of Briarcliff-Lakeside or become part of the city of Decatur.
None of those options appears likely, in large part because Emory University has expressed concerns about joining a new city that could divide its campus. As for Decatur, the city school system is already at its capacity and its government doesn’t want to add more residential properties.
I wonder if the equasion for Decatur annexation changes if schools are also part of the “get”- i.e. Fernbank and Druid Hills High School. How would the transfer of those properties to Atlanta, Decatur or Briarcliff from DeKalb County work?
If Druid Hills joins Atlanta, what happens to Fernbank and the Druid Hills cluster?
Those schools legally belong to the DeKalb County Board of Education. If the area joined the city of Atlanta, I suppose the Atlanta Board of Education would have to buy them from DeKalb somehow.
Schools are an open question. IF Druid Hills went into the city of Atl, the options are: stay with DeKalb schools (this was done when Gainesville annexed some of Hall); or go into APS and potentially acquiring facilities from DeKalb. If a Charter Cluster is permitted, there are other possible permutations.
Exactly. Annexations result in a sort of horse-trading process that addresses the various assets in play. In some instances, school buildings might be a liability that a government is happy to offload. In others, such as this, they could be a significant bargaining chip. No clear indicator for how it would play out.
That being the case, does the comment “As for Decatur, the city school system is already at its capacity ” really apply?
It’s a strategic moment for Decatur.It is probably the last opportunity for annexation and to shape the size of the city. It might be the only opportunity to acquire school assets. It might be able to add commercial tax base. It might be able to add high value residential. However, I think their chances of just adding commercial and not adding significant residential are quite limited. Other cities and proposed cities are willing to take residential and I don’t see the legislature likely to approve cherry picking by Decatur.
The schools in Druid Hills do not belong to just Druid Hills, its not theirs to bargain with. The Druid Hills cluster includes Avondale Estates, Forrest Hills, Midway Woods and other areas of unincorporated Dekalb.
Agreed. It is up to the respective school systems.
Another short sighted and terrible idea. Out of the pot and into the fire.
Decatur would change significantly. It would also grow its tax base exponentially. With the inclusion of an asset like Emory, that would be a game changer. However, it’s just wishful thinking on my part. A move like that would require a level of vision that quite frankly is lacking. Decatur is about to choke itself on residential w/o the means to provide the educational services to support it. The only way out of this pending “issue” is to look at greatly enlarging its educational assets and footprint.
The issue of how to deal with assets like DH HS and Fernbank are very real for whomever DH decides to pursue. It would be nice to see how this could work for CoD. Instead of spending so much time looking at Midway, perhaps more effort should have been made looking towards DH and Emory.
+10 and spot on. Someone should be entertaining and analyzing such bold scale thinking.
Druid Hills actually had an incorporation push to be it’s own city in the 1920’s, I think (per Robert Hartle’s book) but it didn’t go too far. I personally think DH, Emory and the CDC need to be in the City of Atlanta, as well as most of ITP DeKalb (although absorbing “historic” cities like Decatur, Chamblee, AE, etc., al la Oakhurst would be a tall order) and it should have incorporated Sandy Springs, too. The fact that Atlanta, with it’s majority suburban, low density layout leaves it’s population far too low (under 500,000) for a city of its stature (even Memphis and Louisville are bigger), I think leaves our region at an economic and political disadvantage. The balkanization is out of hand.
Atlanta did try to incorporate Sandy Springs in the 1970s.
Yes, aware it never made it. I think even Mayor Hartsfield made a push in the 50’s, too. Oh well!
Part of the problem is that Georgia has too many counties. We are 8th in terms of population of the 50 states yet we have far more counties than states of similar size. Add in all these new cities that are being formed and the Atlanta metro area now has hundreds of local government agencies, which makes getting anything done on a regional basis nearly impossible. Yet many of our problems — transportation, air quality, for example — are regional issues. It’s maddening.