Cityhood: It’s “The Corridor” Now and you can add Decatur and City of Atlanta to the mix

Summary:
Attraction and reaction to the efforts of Lakeside City Alliance is now morphing into a focus on future “governance” of the whole Northeast Atlanta Corridor. That will do more than raise questions about the seeming territorial and legislative prerogatives of Lakeside City, but also about several aspects of “new city law”.  A large May 6 public meeting at Clairmont Baptist Church yielded new city-making proposals and a wrinkle never encountered with new city formation—concern about annexation “lockouts” from existing cities.

I’ve attended several Northeast Corridor cityhood meetings since January—three in churches, Tucker, Briarlake and Oak Grove. The fourth and most recent “church meeting” was at Clairmont Baptist, at Toco Hills—just outside of the current “Lakeside City” map. The May 6 legislative meeting at Clairmont Baptist Church was devised by State Representative Mary Margaret Oliver, one of two Decatur Democrat lawmakers with parts of their districts in areas in disputed lands reaching into the Lakeside High School district (another two Democrats, Scott Holcombe of Northlake and Michelle Henson of Tucker also represent parts of Lakeside). The only Republican legislator along The Corridor of city proposals is Senator Fran Millar of Dunwoody.

Portending what might make our little place in the sun ground zero for big news, this was the AJC’s April Hunt’s take on the meeting: “(A) fight is shaping up because what could become the cities of Lakeside, Lavista Hills and Tucker — not to mention the possibilities being called Briarcliff and Prosperity — are not following the script of metro Atlanta’s cityhood movement…” http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local/would-be-cities-duking-out-over-boundaries-in-deka/nXHRT/?icmp=ajc_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_ajcstubtomyajcpremium

Oliver has authored two bills that question the current “new city laws”: last year she would have brought the financial condition of DeKalb’s county government into focus as cities were sequentially (dominos falling) being formed; and recently filed a little noted requirement for a complete constitutional review as part of making a city here.

State Senator Jason Carter presented opinions at the meeting. Carter, has filed a “placeholder bill”  for a “Lavista Hills” area (nom de place for Briar Vista and the “hills” of Druid and Toco). The assumption is that a “floated” map would at some point be connected to his bill and align closely with his district, corresponding to over 90,000 residents.

Speaking for Tucker at the meeting was Michelle Penkava, representing a newly formed study group which has floated a proposed city map. Tucker is indeed part of the Northeast DeKalb/Lavista Corridor and a city proposal there would impact Lakeside City. Tucker is a unique case of a specific “census designated place”, very much like the “Unincorporated Community” that Sandy Springs was before becoming a city.

The point here is designating separate cities along The Corridor is more difficult than previous cityhood efforts, which have gradually looked less and less like the Sandy Springs model as each new-city domino has fallen. Sandy Springs of course had no such problems since they were historically "prepared" for a vote and to be governed with a mandate.

Also, Sandy Springs had no nearby jurisdictions that could make an argument for future annexation, a point that was made by a Decatur official at the May 6 meeting—and Bruce McGregor, President of the formidable Druid Hills Civic Association, uttered the unmentionable: the fact that the Druids might want to entertain an annexation vote into the City of Atlanta!

Does a community need unique boundaries and sense of place before “qualifying” to become a city?

Ironically, there are influential advocates of new-city formation (in reality adversarial to county government) that think community “clarity” is important to formation success. Oliver Porter, considered the Father of Sandy Springs admitted as much in the large Lakeside City meeting at the Hellennic Center—referring to “legislative hurdles” persisting with multiple proposals. Ben Vinson, an attorney who chaired the Governor’s Commission on Brookhaven told members of the Buckhead Business Association that the momentum for cityhood may be slowing and there are very few areas left that would be likely to incorporate (due to confusion over boundaries). http://www.reporternewspapers.net/2013/01/24/video-brookhaven-commission-chairman-talks-new-cities-police-at-bba-meeting/

To date Republican legislators have refused to admit that multiple proposals (and voter perplexity) will have any bearing on what the General Assembly decides to do. In fact, since the Clairmont meeting, they have taken a more assertive stance that their Lakeside proposal will be the only one that counts http://northdruidhills.patch.com/articles/legislator-only-gop-backed-cit...

They’re probably correct. Gazing into my crystal ball, the only thing that will prevent a city vote on a yet to be finalized Lakeside proposal would be Lakeside City Alliance leaders themselves under challenge in less than familiar territories.  Who knows, what has been a relatively compliant legislature might one day wonder what legitimate criteria should be for forming a new city beyond Sandy Springs.