There’s been a lot of talk recently regarding Decatur annexation over the past couple of months, as the City Commission has accepted large parcel annexations of the Parkwood neighborhood and a recent 31 parcel annexation along South Columbia and Derrydown Way.

At the June 16th Decatur City Commission meeting, in response to a question from Commissioner Fred Boykin, City Manager Peggy Merriss mentioned that the city was working on an “Annexation Master Plan”.  So we followed up with her to get further details on a) what is it?  b) how does it affect future annexation petitions from neighboring property owners? c) what’s the timeline?

Here is Ms. Merriss’ reply…

The goal of the Annexation Master Plan is to develop a proposal for the future Decatur city limits given that it still appears likely that the central and northern parts of DeKalb County will be part of some city in the next 3-5 years.

The plan would have to take into account:

• current and future land use and zoning
• potential development and redevelopment possibilities
• demographics – both existing conditions and future projections
• service delivery requirements and costs both for the City and for the City Schools
• revenue projections
• technical information such as maps, a survey and identification of significant public and private institutions

The intent would be to have a plan that would be adopted by the City Commission and the Board of Education that would be provided to the DeKalb delegation of the Georgia General Assembly for a local bill.  It would certainly be more efficient if there was a single bill with one comprehensive annexation attached.

At this point we do not intend to accept annexation petitions.  We are asking people who indicate interest to collect petitions that can be submitted with the master plan.

The time frame for the annexation master planning process would be to start the technical work this summer and then do the public work in early fall so that we can have a plan ready for consideration in November.