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

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

OK, so there are a lot of moving pieces in the ongoing annexation saga, especially in the neighborhoods to Decatur’s north.  We’re pregnant with updates, so here are many of them all in one place.

Medlock

The Medlock Area Neighborhood Association just released the first results of an ongoing survey that shows residents who took the survey most preferred to be added to the city of Decatur (66%) vs. being added to the city of Briarcliff (60%) or the City of Atlanta (~45%).

At a recent meeting with Former Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver and State Senate candidate Elena Parent, the message sent to regarding Decatur’s disinterest in annexing Medlock was “it ain’t over”, do not accept defeat today.”  They continued…

City of Decatur is likely to get commercial areas but there is an unspoken rule that commercial annexations should also include residents

We would need Representative Rahn Mayo to write legislation to propose that our neighborhood be annexed to City of Decatur. Even if the legislation is approved and a referendum is mandated, the Decatur Commission could still say no.

Druid Hills

Over to the west in Druid Hills, the main annexation effort continues to focus on Atlanta.  The Civic Association recently released a map, using the current Briar Vista and Fernbank Elementary School boundaries as the first proposed boundaries of a Druid Hills annexation into Atlanta.  See map below (courtesy of Druid Hill Civic Assoication website).

The Civic Association has also provided a tax analysis of the potential changes if incorporated into Atlanta.  In regards to Emory, the site says they continue to monitor the situation and hope the process remains open so they can evaluate their options.

Clairemont Heights

Between Medlock and Druid Hills sits Clairemont Heights, which has been relatively silent on annexation preference up until now.  However, this past week the Clairmont Heights Civic Association blog noted that some residents of the neighborhood had recently filed a petition with the city of Decatur requesting annexation.  The petition claims the support of “at least 68% of homes” in Clairmont Heights, though some discussion on the Association’s Facebook page about how widely the petition was circulated.

At the same time, Clairmont Heights current President noted recently that Druid Hills’ latest annexation map (above) incorporated some of Clairmont Heights in their annexation plan.

Of note, if Clairmont were to incorporate into Decatur, it would eliminate an Atlanta annexation from Medlock’s array of choices, since it would have no way of being congruent to the Atlanta city limit.

Interesting article up on the AJC.  Here’s how it gets started…

Some neighborhoods in unincorporated DeKalb County near Emory University are unlikely to be annexed by the city of Atlanta, said county schools superintendent Michael Thurmond.

Fielding questions after giving a speech about the state of the school system Tuesday, Thurmond told a crowd at Georgia Perimeter College in Clarkston that he’d inquired about the annexation interest of the Druid Hills Civic Association.

It sounds like the City of Decatur and Medlock Park have finally had an official meeting to discuss annexation.

Reporting out of a meeting between MANA board members and Decatur City Manager Peggy Merriss, Mayor Baskett and Commissioner Boykin, MANA acting President Lynn Ganim stated in a recent post on the Medlock Area Neighborhood Association website…

The gist of Decatur’s response is that they are not interested in annexing the Medlock neighborhood or any other significant residential area because of the effect on the Decatur schools. There were no qualifications in their response. That door (or should we say “gateway”) is not open to us.

So what are Medlock’s options at this point?  According to Ganim…

It appears that at this point our choices include being annexed into Atlanta (assuming Clairmont Heights and Druid Hills also decide on the same course of action), being included in a new city (whatever compromise Lakeside and Briarcliff or the legislature determines,) or remaining in a possibly dramatically smaller unincorporated DeKalb County.

From Medlock Area Neighborhood Association website…

from MANA acting President Lynn Ganim

Special MANA meeting

Atlanta’s District 6 Councilman Alex Wan will present information about the City of Atlanta and what would be involved if our neighborhood chose to be annexed into Atlanta, one of the several possibilities that have been suggested for our area.

He will speak on Wednesday, September 17, at 7:00 at North Decatur Presbyterian Church.

As has been said many times, even though many of us would like to be left as we are in unincorporated DeKalb County, others are discussing—even planning— changes to our future, and it’s critical that we inform ourselves so that we can make our own educated decisions. Please plan to attend this important informational meeting.

Map courtesy of MANA website