Cityhood Efforts Simmer Across DeKalb County

Efforts across DeKalb County to finetune pitches for cityhood before next year’s General Assembly are continuing this summer.

The proposed City of South DeKalb’s organizers want a bill ready for the 2015 legislative session. However, Kathryn Rice, who is leading the effort, the group does not have a sponsor for the bill or the money for a feasibility study.

The exact boundaries of a possible City of South DeKalb haven’t been defined yet.

“At a minimum we’re looking at everything south of 285 excluding the cities,” she told WABE. “But we would also like to include unincorporated Clarkston, and that’s up to them.”

While a study said incorporating the Stonecrest area was not financially viable, Stonecrest City Alliance Leader Jason Lary told WABE adding southern DeKalb County could make the difference because of its “sheer mass and size.”

Lary says he’s interested in hearing more about the South DeKalb proposal.

Rice says the focus of forming a new city in South DeKalb will be economic development.

Other cityhood efforts continue in the county, as well. Representatives from the City of Briarcliff Initiative and Lakeside Yes read a joint statement before the DeKalb County Operations Task Force July 2 pledging to work together to create suggested boundaries for their cities.

The Operations Task Force was created by Interim CEO Lee May and is charged with making recommendations that can be forwarded to the Georgia General Assembly by December. 

The statement from the July 2 meeting by Lakeside YES and the City of Briarcliff Initiative said the groups have agreed to collaborate with the goal of creating a unified map free of overlapping areas and respecting existing city borders and future annexation plans.

“We respect the compromise map between Tucker and Lakeside as the starting point of this collaboration, and we respect the inclusive approach of the Briarcliff map,” said Lakeside Yes Chairman Mary Kay Woodworth. “We will continue to work with our sponsors, Representative Jacobs and Senator Millar, residents and business owners in our community to reach the goal of local control and governance for this community. We invite the advocates of the city of Tucker to join with us so that we can present two cities with a clear path to cityhood prior to the 2015 session of the General Assembly.”

City of Briarcliff Imitative President Allen Venet read, “We are committed to working together because we agree on almost every issue except boundaries, and boundaries can be solved. As we refine our map, we are soliciting neighborhood input, and we will work with state, county and local elected representatives of both major parties and with the existing cities of DeKalb County.”