More info will be available during and after tonight’s 6:30p Decatur City Commission Annexation Work Session (watch it LIVE!), but here’s some preliminary annexation petition data we received by request from City Manager Peggy Merriss.
According to Ms. Merriss, the city received 207 individual petitions from property owners in the Annexation Master Plan annexation areas, an area that includes a total of of 1020 total parcels. Here’s the breakdown by area:
- Area A: Yes – 9, No – 73
- Area B: Yes – 84, No – 19
- Area C: Yes – 0, No – 1
- Area D: Yes – 8, No – 13
Take it. Take it all.
What about the petitions in the surrounding areas? Midway Woods sent several Against Annexations due to the fact the city had included one side of Conway
They were still compiling when I asked about them earlier today. We’ll see if they get referenced in the meeting this evening.
So area B is the only one that wants in? Great! Some of us are in area B =)
So are we voting for COD commissioners tomorrow? If so which are in favor of annexation which are against? I need to know who to vote out if I’m voting on them tomorrow. It looks like this is potentially the only chance COD residents get to weigh in on annexation even though it affects us significantly.
Maybe it’s futile if COD commissioners have already made up their mind they want to grow baby grow!
COD commissioners I want clear information: how much tax revenue will the commercial property in Area B bring into COD? How much tax revenue will the residential units in Area B bring to COD? How many school kids do the “consultants” believe will be added with annexation of Area B? How many residential units are in Area B currently, including all the current apartment units in The Clarion and Jackson Square apts? Are there any current school buildings in Area B, doesn’t look like it? It looks like a huge residential area to me. Does Walmart have some tax exempt deal for their development in Suburban Plaza or will this bring tax revenue to COD? Does Dekalb Medical Center pay taxes to COD or are they completely tax exempt? Have the commissioners asked these questions do they have answers to these questions or are they just winging it?
Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t believe any commission seats are included in tomorrow’s election.
You are correct.
+1
They did not give us much time to get the petitions in with only 5 1/2 business days. It is also my understanding that this is the one and only meeting we get to have with them. Unfortunately for me, I can not vote in any CoD elections tomorrow even though those people are having an impact on my life and home.
Occi, I’m guessing you’re in an area proposed for annexation? You will get to vote in a referendum – your vote will count (unless you’re a commercial property owner, right?). The residents who already live within the city limits don’t get individual votes on annexation – we are just stuck with our lousy and less than transparent city commissioners – and trust me, adding a lot more residential affects our lives (negatively) as well. City residents really feel as if we don’t have a say.
from the Work Session (from memory): among all parcels the city has under consideration for annexation, ~12% are single family homes, 88% commercial property.
that’s a reassuring ratio.
Isn’t there a vast swath of apartment complexes in area B? Maybe I’m mistaken but I believe so.
apartments don’t get homestead exemptions and are taxed differently than single family homes are
the % split may have been phrased, “residential vs. non-homestead/commercial”
Yeah that’s concerning to me. Sounds like an additional burden of lots of school age kids without an equal increase in tax revenue. And no school building to accommodate new kids.
+1
Yes I agree apartments = lots of kids in schools and people with houses elsewhere renting an apt just to have a COD address and living elsewhere outside the district. People do this, I know CSD tries to investigate but I’m sure some slip through the cracks.
I’d like to see some evidence that apartments bring more kids than single family neighborhoods. That is contrary to anything I’ve seen. I live in a condo/apartment community in CoD. There are maybe 5 kids in the whole thing. The same number of single family units along, say, Superior likely has many more times that. 2 bedroom bungalows being turned into 5-bedroom houses in Oakhurst. Who do you think is moving into those?
+1. Especially as it relates to downtown, apartments will prove to be a notable contribution to paying for all this gold-plated school business. Generally speaking, people don’t rent $2,000 apartments to pull a scam.
There are a few scams every year, surprisingly enough. There’s also families–often divorced/single Moms and children–moving into apartments for the school system. I know some of them (and fine folks they are). There’s also certain apartment complexes that take Section 8 vouchers or whatever they are called and they will tend to have students. If you look at the proportion of students, apartments have a low ratio. But if you look at the absolute count of students, apartments do add students and I think the count will increase as it gets harder to buy in the city of Decatur. The city is probably more interested in the proportion, from a revenue point of view. The school system has to be interested in the absolute count as well because every student needs a seat someplace in a school, no matter how low a proportion they represent in their residential building.
Why are we even considering annexing the United Methodists Children’s Home? It is tax exempt so it brings in no tax revenue, and it adds many children, most all of whom are from broken homes, into the school system. A lot of these will have special needs.
Since the criteria for annexation specifically include raising tax revenue without adding students to our school system, why is this being considered?
That question has been asked multiple times over the last couple of years, but yet no one has answered. Some people say it would be nice green space, but that still doesn’t justify annexation (especially as it will remain a green space on the opposite side of an arbitrary line).
Adding greenspace is not in the annexation criteria. That would require even more taxpayer funding too. Is the landowner on board about using their property for a public purpose and are Decatur voters privy to that info so that they can intelligently consider it as the city has asked them to do during these workshops?
The hidden agendas in this annexation debate are really troubling. The city states their annexation criteria, then move to annex properties that don’t fit within the criteria at all. Hence, you get the Parkwood neighborhood, which is exclusively residential.
If there is no annexation petition in favor of this, according to the above, and one opposed to its annexation, then who wants it annexed in the first place? Is it fair to assume that this a hidden agenda for a particular city official?
You’re asking the questions we’ve all been wondering. The rhetoric and the actions don’t add up.
The potential UMCH annexation makes no sense, given our current overcrowding situation. Now, if we had room in the schools, I’d be all for bringing those kids into the system, bc I think the strong services at CSD schools would make a real impact in those kids’ lives – but that is not our situation. If we can’t fit all the kids we have into the schools we have, and per-pupil spending inevitably goes down, it will water down everything for all students.
Children from broken homes or with special needs should be banned from CSD. The School Board needs to put it in writing so that children with these issues should never be allowed to attend school in COD. This is is response to Moderate, just to clarify.
What a cheap shot. Really not worthy of a response. I guess if you can’t address the argument, you insult someone. I must hate handicapped children because I question why the city isn’t following their annexation criteria. I must hate healthy kids too because I question why we are annexing other residential neigborhoods based on their criteria. I must hate my own kids because I don’t send them to CSD.
I guess an anonymous post on a message board insulting someone is how you feel fulfilled in your life. Sad.
What you posted stated that if annexed, the children would be special needs and from broken homes. I concluded that that was an issue to you. If I offended you, please accept my apologies. You are also posting anonymously as are most people on DM.
The debate is a fiscal one. The city wants more money from taxes than it pays out. That’s their stated goal, and they have set up criteria for that. If they want to annex areas that would bring in disadvantaged children, then that’s laudible. But, they should disclose that as an additional criteria and let taxpayers weigh in. They shouldn’t say one thing and do something else. That’s my only point. The process should be honest and open.
Good point.