Time Running Out on Efforts to Create 3 Cities in DeKalb County

The effort to incorporate three areas in central DeKalb County has little chance make it through the state legislature as the session wraps up.

Some residents in Lakeside, Briarcliff, and Tucker want to incorporate. So far, only Lakeside has 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 encompass 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 are dead for this session, reports WABE radio. Lakeside struck a compromise with Tucker late Tuesday night, which leaves only Lakeside’s bill still alive for this year, and Tucker having to wait until 2015.

However, Lakeside’s bill was tabled, so DeKalb CEO Lee May may get the one-year cooling off period he has sought.

“I think that we probably will have a fully incorporated DeKalb County with every parcel being in one city or another. But that needs to be a substantive process,” May says.

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

The process has been criticized from all sides, says WABE:

“Behind closed doors” is the complaint by Allen Venet, head of the City of Briarcliff Initiative.

“An illusion of confusion” is what Lakeside City Alliance Mary Kay Woodworth accuses legislators of creating.

“It’s secretive; it’s not very transparent.” That is the comment from DeKalb County Interim CEO Lee May when asked about the process. 

But Lakeside opponents in a recent legislative hearing said the claims of widespread support are overstated and the proposed city boundaries are artificial, politically-motivated, and would hurt other established communities. 

“In my opinion, it’s a deliberate move to secede from areas composed of poorer people and people of color,” said Hillary Ford, a resident of Mason Mill, told legislators.    

Unincorporated DeKalb resident Marjorie Hall Snook called for a halt of all three cityhood campaigns, arguing the focus should be on fixing DeKalb’s existing government.

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

Other posts on the topic:

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