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.

Some residents in the Clairmont Heights neighborhood (outlined in red above, west of the Medlock neighborhood outlined in yellow) are preparing an annexation petition to submit to the City of Decatur prior to the October 13th deadline set by the city.  From the Clairmont Heights Civic Association website…

From the CHCA board:  Neighborhood residents may be aware that there is an active petition effort underway seeking support for an annexation into  the City of Decatur for our neighborhood. (This is separate from the survey that Clairmont Heights Civic Association volunteers recently completed, and the petition effort is not an activity of the CHCA.) The petition is being pursued under a process described on the Decatur website at http://www.decaturga.com/index.aspx?page=660.

While it is unclear if the area in the petition will be the exact boundaries of CHCA, the organizers have consistently sought support in all parts of the neighborhood. While there are no guarantees, the organizers did receive indications that Decatur will consider petitions demonstrating strong support on each street included in the petition. This volunteer-driven process relies on neighbors participating on every street to reinforce the solidarity of the petition.

Decatur has set a deadline of October 13 for submitting petitions. Organizers in our neighborhood report that they may submit their petition even earlier than that. If you would like more information or are interested in signing the petition, contact Mark Knowles at [email protected]  or Mike Hall at [email protected] .