Another Legislator: Only GOP-Backed Cityhood Bills Will Be Considered

If a bill for the creation of a new city in the North Druid Hills-Briarcliff area is to be considered by the state legislature next year, it's likely going to be the one written and submitted on behalf of the Lakeside City Alliance, a Dunwoody legislator said Monday night.

And that bill's Republican support will be key, said Dunwoody state Rep. Tom Taylor.

"None of these are even going to get a hearing except for [the Lakeside City Alliance's]," Taylor said after an alliance meeting before roughly 70 residents from the Evansdale Elementary School area.

Taylor, a Republican, was instrumental in the creation of city of Dunwoody and served on its city council until he resigned to run for his House seat in 2010.

The Lakeside City Alliance's bill, submitted by Dunwoody state Sen. Fran Millar in March, cannot be considered by the legislature until next year per state law. But in a Republican-dominated State House, Taylor said, bills by other legislators, including those filed Decatur state Sen. Jason Carter and Decatur state Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, both Democrats, are likely to find scant support.

"I'm just being frank," he said.

His comments mirror a similar statement from Millar in early April. Taylor also said only Millar's and Carter's bill are capable of being considered by legislature. The others – several of which are less than a page – lack "legal sufficiency," he told the audience, because they do not contain enough detail, including proposed boundaries. (One such bill was also filed at the last minute in late March for a potential city of Tucker by Democratic legislators including Michele Henson.) When approached by a reporter after the meeting, Taylor, however, admitted he isn't an attorney and was only offering his opinion of the bills' legality.

But before any bill or proposal can go before the legislature, groups pursuing those cities need to pay for a cityhood study from the University of Georgia or Georgia State University as per state law. The studies cost around $30,000, and the Lakeside City Alliance is quickly nearing that fundraising mark. The North Druid Hills Study Group, led by local resident Don Broussard, is also raising money for its proposed city of Briarcliff, which would go from the Mercer University area south to the boundaries of Decatur and Atlanta, including all of Druid Hills, the Emory University area and the North Druid Hills-Briarcliff area. The Study Group's map also excludes a chunk of land west of I-285 around the Evansdale Elementary area north of Tucker, and many North Druid Hills-area residents have expressed a preference that any proposed city in the area not extend west of I-285.

Former state representative Kevin Levitas, one of the Lakeside alliance's founders, told the audience the communities outside the I-285 area will determine whether they stay in the Lakeside map.

"It's not going to be driven by us, and it's not going to be driven by outside folks either," he said.

If the alliance's proposal was voted into a city, Levitas also said he would not run for mayor or city council, though he said he might be inspired to recruit people to run for the city who he believed would serve it well.

For more coverage of the cityhood issue.

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