Push to Make Lakeside, Tucker Cities Ends for this Session

Efforts to create new cities in DeKalb County this year – Lakeside, Tucker and Briarcliff – are all dead for this legislation session.

Only Lakeside still had a chance of winning cityhood at this point, with a committee hearing set for Monday afternoon.

But, Fran Millar, the sponsor of Senate Bill 270, to create Lakeside out of north-central DeKalb County, withdrew his proposal in a surprise hearing Monday, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The move came after House leaders indicated they would not approve the issue without also allowing for the creation of Tucker. But that would have required the House to suspend several rules to make the Tucker bill happen, effectively killing it, the newspaper says. 

The legislative session ends Thursday.

Some residents in Lakeside, Briarcliff, and Tucker want to incorporate. But, only Lakeside had a bill passed through a chamber of the General Assembly, reports Georgia Pubic Radio. The new city, as called for by Senate Bill 270, would have encompassed the area just north of Emory University and run well past I-285 to the DeKalb county line.

Briarcliff’s efforts to become a city ended earlier in the session. Lakeside struck a compromise with Tucker, which left only Lakeside’s bill still alive until March 17, and Tucker having to wait until 2015.

The Tucker/Lakeside deal put Northlake Mall in Lakeside’s proposed boundaries. The dividing line between the two would-be cities was drawn along Lavista Road, with Lakeside getting the north side of the road, and Tucker claiming the south side, the station reports. 

Click here to see the map of Lakeside as of March 13, 2014.

Other posts on the topic:

Georgia House Panel to Take Up Tucker-Lakeside Cityhood Proposal

Hearing Focuses on Push by Three DeKalb Communities to Become Cities

Next Steps for Cityhood? Clear as Mud for the Moment

Lakeside City ♫♫ does the hokey pokey ♫♫

How Many People Remember Central DeKalb Pre-285?

As DeKalb Cityhood Drives Heat Up, Decatur Refocuses on Annexation