Still Holding Out Hope For An Annexation Throwdown
Decatur Metro | November 20, 2008Avondale will be holding their own annexation meeting tonight at 5:30p to discuss extending the city limits farther out College Avenue, encompassing more commercial and residential land.
For those of you just arriving at the Annexation Party (Let me take your coat. Would you like a mimosa?) here’s a short recap of the annexation tension (or lack thereof) between the two cities…
Shortly after it was revealed earlier this year that Decatur was looking at annexation along College Avenue, Avondale quickly responded by saying that they were ALSO going to begin studying annexation along College Avenue between the two cities…presumably because they didn’t want Decatur to gobble up all the commercial goodies along the corridor, leaving nothing but residential crumbs behind.
What could have resulted in a throwdown between these two neighboring cities instead ended in a “gentleman’s agreement” that concluded that if both decided to annex, they would meet in the middle.
But I still say that pistols at dawn would have made for a better blog posting! 
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Yah, We have a building on Dekalb Industrial Way. We just got a letter from Avondale today. It listed all the benefits of being annexed to Avondale ….. uh, I am I missing something here. This is a blatant grab for more property tax dollars with an additional touch of bureaucracy added. The list of bennies is actually humorous. One of them is ” the enhanced customer service associated with a smaller city” The phone number on the letter for the City Managers office (offered for question answering if called) was called twice and still no call back. This is service worth paying an additional premium for
Funny thing, the letter mentioned nothing about the meeting tonight.
Jeez! I am getting tired of being bled by bloated government
Metro, thanks for the heads up. You should rename your blog Decatur Annexation Woes. Or something like that.
This is the go-to place for annexation info! I hope our City commissioners and CSD Board members are reading!
To the extent that AE annexation is tied to Decatur annexation, AE should be made aware at tonight’s meeting that there are now major questions regarding projections of school enrollment after annexation that may profoundly affect all of Decatur’s financial projections concerning annexation. Things are now much more in the air so far as Decatur moving forward is concerned than they were just a week ago.
I’m confused why AE would be concerned about the projections of school enrollment, since all those AE annexed kids will still be attending their same Dekalb County schools. Wouldn’t a higher residential mix have less of an impact on them than Decatur?
My point is that Decatur annexation isn’t just Decatur annexation. THere has been a lot of negotiation with AE and their plans for annexation. Each city’s plan is a product of that negotiation. So, as AE looks at their plan, they should be aware that the Decatur annexation has just hit an enormous pothole — that it’s less likely to happen today than it was last week. They should know, that’s all.