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 

The City just released this statement from Mayor Jim Baskett regarding Decatur’s legislative efforts this session.

The City of Decatur is appreciative of the efforts of Representative Karla Drenner and State Senator Elena Parent to move forward with part of the overall Decatur Annexation Master Plan.  Regretfully, HB 663 was not successful during the 2015 legislative session.  It is our understanding that opposition from neighborhoods in the City of Atlanta annexation plan and concerns about potential lost revenue to the DeKalb County School System resulted in the bill not receiving consideration in the Georgia Senate. During the remainder of 2015, the Decatur City Commission will assess how, or if, we want to move forward on annexation issues in 2016.

In addition, the Decatur City Commission had also supported legislation to increase homestead exemptions for City of Decatur taxes.  We are highly disappointed that property tax relief for our taxpayers, particularly for low and moderate income seniors was defeated in the Georgia House of Representatives. Adoption of the proposed legislation would have made a real difference in the lives of our seniors by providing over $1,100 of annual tax savings.  The Decatur City Commission will try again in 2016 to secure reconsideration of the legislation by the General Assembly.

Decatur Metro just received this letter from the Clairmont Heights Civic Association to the Georgia Legislature requesting inclusion in the referendum that currently includes annexing Druid Hills and Emory into the city of Atlanta…

To our elected representatives in the Georgia legislature,

The Board of the Clairmont Heights Civic Association (CHCA) supports our inclusion in the bill authorizing a referendum to annex into the City of Atlanta. Our neighborhood survey from September, 2014, which had a very high participation rate, indicates that our residents favor inclusion in an existing city versus a new one. Our residents feel strongly about retaining access to our elementary school and deserve a voice and vote on this important matter.

You may find our survey results at http://clairmontheights.org/node/4208 .

In addition, The CHCA Board believes that the proposed annexation map preserves critical local control over the major access points to Clairmont Heights and decisions regarding future area development. Local jurisdiction over entrances to Clairmont Heights is vital to safety, service delivery, zoning and land development, and traffic issues – especially in long-range planning for proposed major mass transit expansion.

Signed by Board members of the Clairmont Heights Civic Association

• Michael Dowling, President
• Pete Rumsey, Vice President                                    Jim Smith
• Pam Daily, Treasurer                                                 Brian Feagans
• Nancy Moore, Recording Secretary                          Ian Sifuentes
• Julia Byrne, Corresponding Secretary                       Mike Fink

The AJC reports this morning that the cityhood initiatives of Tucker, LaVista Hills and South Fulton are the furthest along in the process after the first House Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday.  The AJC dubs them the “front runners”, while Stonecrest, Sharon Springs and Greenhaven have yet to have their legislation introduced.

Whether any of them will actually pass is still very much an unknown, but it’s good to keep up to date on where these initiatives are in the legislative murk.

Map courtesy of the AJC

Clairmont Heights Civic Association Secretary Julia Byrne reports that the neighborhood association board met yesterday and approved the following letter to the DeKalb delegation of the Georgia Legislature, officially stating their opposition to Decatur’s Annexation Master Plan.

The letter also included the map shown above.

January 11, 2015

To our elected representatives in the Georgia Legislature,

The Board of the Clairmont Heights Civic Association writes to protest the City of Decatur’s proposed Annexation Master Plan. We respectfully request that you object to legislation related to this plan during the 2015 session of the Georgia General Assembly.

Our Board feels that Decatur’s planned annexation harms and negatively impacts options for our neighborhood as annexation and city creation efforts in DeKalb County proceed. CHCA conducted a neighborhood survey in September to determine the course of action our residents preferred, and we have done our best to ensure that our opinions would be known and our voices heard as the legislature considers the current annexation and city creation efforts. CHCA officers and individual homeowners consulted with our local legislators and the Decatur City Manager to seek their advice over the past several months. In particular, following the advice we received from our local legislators, neighborhood members carefully pursued the petition process set forth by Decatur. Decatur declined to consider the petitions they had solicited.

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There’s been a lot of news coverage and discussion about annexation around DeKalb over the past year, with Decatur finally approving their own annexation Master Plan this month.

But what’s the real likelihood that the Georgia Legislature will actually take up the issue of dealing with DeKalb’s many newly proposed and expanded cities?

As Decaturish laid out in a post last week, there are still many unanswered questions.

But the one we’ve heard will be nearly impossible to be resolved by the January legislative session regards the potential Atlanta annexation of Druid Hills, which  would not only move over 1600 students into APS but would also include taking possession of two DeKalb County Elementary Schools – Fernbank Elementary and Briar Vista Elementary – along with Druid Hills High School.

I ran across this quote from District 86 State Rep. Michele Henson in a Neighbor Newspaper article a few days back that reiterated this point again…

“How do we address this issue with our school systems as far as who is going to go where, what schools will or won’t be in DeKalb anymore and so forth?” [Rep. Hensen] said. “This is a major issue and is not a decision to be made in the next two months because we’re not at the place yet where we understand what it means for our county.”

DeKalb County Schools recently released a report that details the impact and complexities of an Atlanta annexation on DeKalb County Schools.

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One item referenced by both the city and CSD during the recent Annexation Master Plan approval, specified that city schools wouldn’t need to provide educational services to students in the annexed areas until 18 months after the effective annexation date.

This has led to a few comments here in the last week where folks have worried that any such delay in adding students to the City Schools of Decatur school system would mean that they would be paying Decatur school taxes, while continuing to send their kids to DeKalb County Schools.

So I followed up with Decatur City Manager Peggy Merriss, who verified that this wasn’t the case.  She writes…

As I understand it, taxpayers would continue to pay property taxes to the appropriate school system where they are enrolled.

For example, if the annexation was effective on December 31, 2015,  then for school year beginning July 1, 2016 students in the annexation area would continue to attend DeKalb County schools and taxpayers would pay DeKalb County school taxes in two installments in 2016 (usually due in late August and mid November).  For school year beginning July 1, 2017, students in the annexation area would attend City Schools of Decatur and taxpayers would pay Decatur School taxes in two installments in 2017 (usually due June 1st  and December 20th).

So taxes would be paid to the school system for the school year where the children are enrolled.

I hope that clarifies things a bit.