I recall a good amount of interest from the masses the last time we posted an update on closing the Stone Mountain PATH trail gap back in 2013.

Well, here’s a good bit of news – and some nice history – for all you pedal pushers and sneaker jockeys :-), courtesy of the PATH Foundation…

DeKalb County, PATH, and CSX Railroad are negotiating an agreement that would allow PATH and the County to complete the missing segment of the Stone Mountain Trail between Glendale Road and Clarkston. The discussions are preliminary at press time but all parties are at the table attempting to reach an accord.

In 1992, The old Decatur to Stone Mountain trolley right-of-way was ‘discovered’ by the PATH Foundation founders during their search for a suitable trail corridor that would connect the Olympic venue in Atlanta to the cycle venue at Stone Mountain Park. This lovely, tree-lined corridor stretching from downtown Clarkston to Stone Mountain Village, had been deeded to DeKalb County by Georgia Power Company after being abandoned decades before. Needless to say it was just what the doctor ordered: a continuous, publicly owned corridor that was level and virtually free of obstacles.

The first foot of trail PATH ever poured was on the trolley corridor near the corner of Country Address, just east of Clarkston. A mile of trail was completed at this location and used as the ‘model mile’ to convince potential donors that trails were good and PATH was the real deal.

PATH went on to complete a majority of the trail between Freedom Park and Stone Mountain before the 1996 Olympics. One glaring exception was the half-mile segment west of Clarkston including the bridge over I-285. There were too many issues involved with crossing I-285 and encroaching onto railroad right-of-way for a young, inexperienced nonprofit to resolve in a timely fashion.

The recent negotiations were encouraged by the fact that DeKalb County condemned the edge of the CSX right-of-way for trail development late last year. Rather than continuing the court case, the parties have agreed to pursue a settlement that will allow a trail bridge across I-285 into Clarkston but would exit CSX right-of-way east of I-285. The PATH design team is altering plans to reflect terms of the agreement in hopes the project will move forward. Stay tuned.

If you live in unincorporated DeKalb County or a DeKalb city where the County takes care of trash pickup for you, you have long been blessed with twice weekly trash pickup.  However, that may all soon change.

County CEO Lee May is proposing scaling back pick up to once a week.  The proposal comes after a three-month pilot program with 28,000 residents from the cities of Brookhaven, Chamblee, Dunwoody and Lithonia and unincorporated DeKalb, according to Crossroads News.

A note today from Commissioner Kathie Gannon announcing a meeting next Monday, February 9th at 6:30p at Scott-Candler Library to discuss the proposed changes, explains the reason for “One-day-a-week waste collection” this way – “Currently, garbage is collected twice a week for DeKalb County residents. On the first collection day, Sanitation picks up more than 66 percent of countywide garbage. This leaves a much lighter second-day collection.”

Additionally, the sanitary service rate sounds like it will remain flat.  The note states that “Residential customers will not experience a rate increase.” It includes these other proposed changes to the DeKalb trash pick up services…

• Standardized containers. The standardized use of 65-gallon green county-provided trash containers will ensure neighborhoods are cleaner and neater with the reduction of loose trash.
• Consolidated collection. With consolidated collection, all waste (solid waste, recycling, and yard trimmings) will be collected on the same day.
• Additional benefits to county residents. The program will include a renewed focus on recycling education for county residents and additional roadside litter collection by Sanitation employees.

The note states that the proposal is “set to be heard for a vote at an upcoming Board of Commissioners meeting.”

Photo courtesy of YouTube

UPDATE: Decatur Mayor Jim Baskett tells us he wants to hear what CEO May has to say in the State of the County Address before responding.

The AJC reports this morning that DeKalb CEO Lee May will propose Thursday in his State of the County Address that the County should build a new government center along Memorial Drive.

The AJC report says that a specific location along Memorial has not been disclosed, but points out that the County owns a lot of land around the Kensington MARTA Station.

Regardless of the location along Memorial, county offices leaving Decatur would be at least a temporary hit on Decatur’s downtown economy.  According to Decatur’s website, the County is the city’s largest employer, employing 1,200 at last count.  At the same time, if the vacated land was converted to commercial property, it could help Decatur increase its low % of commercial land inside the city limits without annexation.

We’ve reached out to the City and will update this post if we receive any reaction or reply.

Photo courtesy of Google Streetview

Here’s the announcement from Atlanta Realty Partners.  And here’s the Google Streetview of the location!

Atlantic Realty Partners is pleased to announce that on May 27, 2014, the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners approved its applications for the development of a 330-unit apartment complex to be located on 9.4 acres on the corner of Church Street and Milscott Drive in Decatur. The site was previously occupied by a car dealership but has been vacant for years. The multifamily complex, to be named “The Reserve”, will feature two “U-shaped” buildings enclosing a terrace courtyard with landscaping and a swimming pool. (See attached site plan). To maintain an urban feel, the buildings are situated directly adjacent to the street and will largely shield the parking lot from view. Additionally, the developer will install sidewalks and landscaping along both Church Street and Milscott Drive.

Specifically, the Board approved (1) an amendment of the Comprehensive Plan Map from Commercial Redevelopment Corridor to Town Center; (2) a rezone from General Commercial to Office-Institutional; and (3) a Special Land Use Permit to increase the allowed height to five stories. The project was approved site-plan specific and subject to 17 conditions (attached).

The developer wishes to thank all those who attended the public hearings and meetings regarding the project. Community input resulted in a final product far superior to what we started with. Atlantic Realty would like to specially thank the members of the Cross-Neighborhoods Committee for their input and informal support throughout the planning process. We look forward to seeing this project finally come to fruition and maintaining a continued presence in the local community.

There was a lot of talk on FFAF this past week as property owners around Decatur and DeKalb County received their annual property tax bills for the coming year, many reporting large increases in the value.  You may recall all the hubbub back in 2012 when county had to do a number of reassessments.

Well things are still confusing for many residents.  John wrote in detailing his own recent findings, which show the odd trends that still exist along single streets…

Well, here we are again at property re-assessment time.  Based on your prior reporting of a 6% average increase, I was prepared to see something in that range.  Alas, being DeKalb County, it has to be something more complicated than that.  As was noted a few years ago, the assessors “flipped” the amount for each of the assessment’s components (*previously*, the LAND value was the lower, fairly constant amount among neighboring properties and the IMPROVEMENTS value was the higher, quite variable amount among neighboring properties – these were the components “flipped” a few years ago). 

Now, looking at several property values under the new assessments, some of the assessments have reverted back to the previous low land, high improvements values while other assessments remain at the recent high land, low improvements values.  In addition to being inconsistent and, frankly, looking haphazard, this makes it very difficult to adequately compare property values among competing properties.

Here are some of the assessments I came across (from properties on same street):
Property 1              LAND  236,300       IMPROVEMENTS 101,900
Property 2              LAND     85,200      IMPROVEMENTS 188,900
Property 3              LAND   184,300      IMPROVEMENTS   49,570
Property 4              LAND     85,200      IMPROVEMENTS 322,700

Nonsensical.

Whenever HOST money is brought up, no one says much.  I think it’s mostly because it’s such a messy ball of red tape and “complicated” calculations that for most it’s just not worth the time trying to understand.  But for those who have enjoyed following the HOST litigation with the county over the last decade or so, here’s an interesting little epilogue.

Reporter Newspapers had a report last week (h/t Decaturish) stating that another effect of adding new cities in DeKalb County would mean smaller HOST allocations for existing cities.  Why?  Chalk it up to that “complicated formula that includes the value of the area’s tax base and the services it receives from DeKalb County.”  So there you have it.

According to the article, last year Decatur received $3,729,679, the third largest amount of HOST money behind Dunwoody and Brookhaven.  Previous year’s allocations had been used to partially fund the renovation of the Rec Center and there was talk of using it to repair sidewalks, etc.

So there you have it.  DeKalb cities lost the long lawsuit vs. the county about unpaid HOST money a couple years back and now it seems the current allocation may soon become smaller.

A lot of the articles from the larger news outlets have been recaps of what has been reported here piecemeal.  But here’s a segment that adds a bit of dimension to the downtown carjacking this past Wednesday. WSB talked with the two DeKalb County Roads and Drains Department employees who helped track carjacking suspect that morning.

Only Channel 2 Action News talked to two DeKalb County workers who helped police track down a carjacker Wednesday morning.

“We were right up on his tail,” Harvey Carter said about how they followed the 15-year-old.

Carter and Sean Brown from the DeKalb County Roads and Drains Department happened to be across from the street on Swanton Way when the victim was carjacked.

Full video and article HERE.