Want to quickly get caught up on the cityhood/annexation events of last night? Here you go…
1. Late last night the Georgia General Assembly approved both the cities of LaVista Hills and Tucker, after resolving a border dispute in an area southeast of Spaghetti Junction.
2. The final approved map removed the Medlock and Mason Mill neighborhoods from LaVista Hills’ borders after residents said they wanted more time to consider inclusion in the City of Atlanta, according to the AJC.
3. Voters will decide whether to make these DeKalb cities a reality with a referendum in November.
4. Check out this Google Map if you want to investigate the final boundaries of the potential new cities and how it relates to other existing DeKalb cities.
5. In related annexation news – Avondale’s annexation died yesterday after an amendment removed the DeKalb Farmer’s Market from its borders.
AJC map courtesy of Google Maps
Recent cityhood votes have passed fairly easily, but I’ve heard Tucker has a relatively high proportion of seniors among its registered voters. The conventional wisdom is that they tend to vote against change, but I don’t know if this has proved true in other cityhood referendums or not.
Fwiw- That map isn’t 100% accurate. Brookhaven annexed Executive Park on the SE side of 85 earlier this year.
I think that was struck down in court.
That is correct. Brookhave and Chanblee both wanted that area and Chamblee won.
No, Brookhaven and Chamblee were tussling over Century Center at I-85 and Clairmont. Chamblee has won all of the court cases to date, however the property owner has appealed one final time to the Supreme Court (even though they declined to hear an earlier appeal).
I do think that Brookhaven annexed Executive Park when they did the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta deal at I-85 and North Druid Hills Road.
You’re right. I was confusing Executive Park and Century Center.
I was not aware of the second appeal to the Supremes.
11th hour. Supremes unanimously declined to hear the case. I doubt saying “pretty please” will make them reconsider that decision.
Re: Tucker: I need to understand why there is a benefit to cityhood if all the City does is zoning and parks/recreation? I had the same question about Peachtree Corners a few years back, but at least Tucker has an identifiable business district. And Tucker better pay attention to the big flap that Dunwoody had with the county over how much the County wanted in order to deed the park land over to the City. Be careful what you ask for.
I don’t really understand it either. The consensus seems to be that Tucker just didn’t want to be left out of the cityhood movements, but didn’t want (or doesn’t have the tax digest to support) a full bore city with police, etc. Some supporters have claimed they don’t need their own police because there’s a DeKalb precinct near Main St., which I suppose may make sense if those DeKalb officers no longer have to cover what will be the jurisdiction for Lavista Hills police.
Yeah, but the same argument about police could have been made for Dunwoody, which had a DeKalb precinct across from Perimeter Mall. They opted for their own police force and say they get far better coverage than before.
Interesting about the Dunwoody decision (though I think I remember reading a claim that crime has increased in Dunwoody since incorporation, fwiw.). My feeling is Tucker’s rationale may not hold up, and voters will reject incorporation there. My vote would be no if I still lived there.
Yep they have the same # of patrol zones and the same # of patrol cars in those zones as dekalb po po did. The difference is in how the two divided up the officers. Dunwoody runs two 12 hr shifts and dekalb ran three 10 hr shifts. The politicians used some government math and called it an increase in po po for dunwoody. The politicians say they have more cops now and the cops say otherwise. I’ll defer to the cops on that matter. The dunwoody police web page has links to their annual reports. Each yearly report detailed an increase in overall crime from the year prior.
Is it bad that I have lived here most of my life and I thought Tucker WAS a city until about 3 years ago? It has a Main Street, FFS.
Tucker is odd that way. Seems like more of a “real city” than some of the newer ones, including Peachtree Corners and Brookhaven, and even some of the older ones, like Doraville
For whatever reason, Cofer didn’t want Tucker to be a city and resisted any efforts thru the years to incorporate.
I grew up in Tucker and thought it was a city too! I remember going to Carson (?) Pharmacy to get calamine lotion and a cap gun when I had the chicken pox. Right there on Main Street!
The Lavista Hills city limits are pretty ridiculous. But I do look forward to watching Lavista Hills Silverbacks soccer.
Yeah, I know someone in the Mason Woods n’hood who woke up in LaVista Hills this AM and is not happy at all.
They can do their part and vote No in November.
Hmmmm. The southernmost border of LVH looks pretty danged convoluted to me–almost like someone cherry-picked particular commercial and residential in such a fashion that the border makes no sense at all. I thought that was the big no-no that everyone was castigating Decatur for when we were trying to get Suburban Plaza & the Clairemont commercial area around Emory Commons. Not only did LVH swallow up the areas around Laurel Ridge Elementary & Druid Hills Middle, but there’s now a tiny little scimitar-shaped peninsula slicing Hunting Valley Drive & another street out of Medlock/University Heights that is going to make life awfully confusing for anyone who buys into that neighborhood from here forward. What a mess!
Apples and oranges, I think. Too much tax would have been removed from DeKalb to support Decatur schools. In LVH and Tucker, school tax still goes to DeKalb. I suppose that could change if DCSB continues to demonstrate dysfunction.
“… there’s now a tiny little scimitar-shaped peninsula…”
To me it looks like a giant gondola that is breaking out of the LaVista Hills area and speeding west on South Fork Peachtree Creek. But, there are rough waters ahead, and it’s going to be tough to navigate those upcoming twists and turns near Heritage Hills and Heritage Heights.
Some of the weirdness (like Hunting Valley Drive) comes from the shape of the voter precincts, which is what had to be used legislatively. Same goes for the border down the middle of WD Thompson Park in the Mason Mill neighborhood. It is yet undetermined how those issues will be handled, and the residents of the respective areas are actively working with Sen. Parent to see what recourse there is to get lines that are more logical.
The rules should be applied equally and fairly. Special Investigation
I was against all the cityhood bills, however I do believe in fairness and the rules are the rules once the game starts. All the other cityhood efforts had to have their feasibility studies completed before consideration.
The LaVista Hills and Tucker bills were passed; I am not sure how Tucker was allowed to move forward with an out of date feasibility studiy, and LaVista Hills was allowed to combine the Lakeside and Briarcliff studies, particularly since the boundaries had changed. Some proponents argued that it was not a significant change so the proponents of LaVista Hill just substituted some numbers. Tucker feasibility study was done in 2013 and its boundaries were different, and its seems that Lakeside and Briarcliff feasibility studies were used as a substitute for LaVista Hills. It is my understanding that the study is currently being done and has not been completed. I hope the residents of those two townships residents will vote down the referendums in November.
The following is stated in one of the feasibility studies: “The House of Representatives Governmental Affairs Committee of the Georgia General Assembly has required by committee rule that bills proposing incorporation be introduced in the first year of a biennial session, and that a feasibility study be conducted before they can be considered in the second year….”
What are the rules in regards to changing committee rules? Who can change or waive these rules? Is there any records of when the rules were changed in regards to the requirement for the feasibility study? Does the parameters of the feasibility have to reflect the city and boundaries of the said city under consideration.?
Citizens Against Cityhood in DeKalb
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As I understood it, the cityhood bills included a waiver of the two year feasibility study cycle.
When you review your feasibility reports. Look for these:
Ratio of residents to land size or perimeter of the city size. This is important for several reasons. Fuel and other costs are depended on the size of the city in square miles. The density of resident per square mile is likely to be different is certain areas of DeKalb County. So, this factor has to be considered when transposing numbers based on the population. The density factor has to be considered.
Is the labor or human resource costs included in the category labeled General Operations/Administrative Services (includes IT, Finance,and Human Resources) or employees separate by department.?
Are employees either contractors or city employees. I know City of Brookhaven is trying to switch from contractors to employees. Is the term FTE (Full Time Employee or equivalent) used in the report?
Does these expenditures include benefits and such medical, pension, travel, professional development, training, life insurance, unemployment compensation, vacation, family leave, workman compensation, etc?
What about Utilities, Phone, and Fuel costs?
Does the report break down the employees required by department based on function or role, beyond the Manager, Council and IT?
Does these expenditures include benefits and such medical, pension, travel, professional development, training, life insurance, unemployment compensation, vacation, family leave, workman compensation, etc?
Is there any particular department that has unusually more employees or equipment than expected, this is usually where the estimators will hide the unknowns?
How will the new proposed city impact the Marta bus funding? MARTA is currently funded by a one-cent sales tax collected in City of Atlanta, Fulton and DeKalb Counties.
Citizens Against Cityhood in DeKalb
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As I see it, DeKalb is like a wounded animal and the predators are circling taking bites along the way. Of course the wounds were self inflicted, but are probably not fatal. That is if the electorate demands better! The rush to city hood is fraught with unintended consequences. Especially, since the juicy commercial areas are GONE already. That leaves residents and little commercial for tax support. The recipe will most likely show new cities struggling to finance themselves. The rush is based on fear! Why else would anyone want to be in the City of Atlanta. I always thought being in DeKalb and Atlanta was the worst of all possible worlds…