2015 Proposed Cities (Atlanta, Tucker, Decatur: move to, map, parties)

[jero23]

Originally Posted by LynnHarris

Exclusive: Senate Committee Does a Complete Re-Write of South Fulton Cityhood Bill

At times, during the 2015 legislative session, it's felt like too many cooks have been in the kitchen, each adding their own herbs and spices to a mundane piece of legislation proposing the creation of a new city in unincorporated south Fulton County.

Well now there's a new chef in the legislative kitchen -- the Senate Committee on State and Local Governmental Operations. And that panel has thrown out the previous batch of bad bills in exchange for a fresh start.

At the end of a long afternoon of hearing from cityhood advocates in Tucker and Lavista Hills, State and Local Governmental Operations Committee Chairman John Albers (R - Roswell) unveiled a substitute to House Bill 514; the City of South Fulton bill.

The committee substitute is the sixth and final form (maybe) of the South Fulton cityhood proposal. It is a major re-write of the original bill introduced by Rep. Roger Bruce (D - Atlanta). But Bruce says he supports the changes.

Some of the highlights of the new South Fulton cityhood bill include:

• Eliminating the position of city council president;
• Reducing the Mayor's salary from $70,000 annually to $23,000;and
• Switching from a strong mayor form of government to a city manager form of government;

If this new City of South Fulton bill is passed and signed into law by Governor Deal, residents would have until 1 July 2015 to annex into an existing city before the borders would be locked for the November cityhood referendum..."

Full Story: Georgia Unfiltered | Telling the Truth

Yeah, and the continuation of this futile attempt to incorporate a malformed shaped area of land into a municipality without a sustainable tax base. I read this about 2 days ago, and yeah it's nothing but an attempt for a handful of individuals to get some government jobs...

[Tryska]

So this happened:

College Park Thumbs Nose at Fulton County, Pushes City Limits to Feldwood Road Via Annexation

by Andre Walker



Georgia Unfiltered has learned that the south metro city of College Park has annexed 245.505 acres of land, despite Fulton County objecting to the move at its 4 March 2015 Board of Commissioners meeting.

The property, valued at $38,144,300, consists of thirteen parcels along Roosevelt Highway and Naturally Fresh Boulevard in south Fulton County.

Staff in the Fulton County Planning and Community Services Department could not find a valid reason to object to College Park annexing the thirteen parcels.

However, the Fulton County Commission still unanimously opposed the 245.505 acre annexation due to inconsistent zoning on other land parcels that were included in College Park's initial 274.985 acre annexation packet.

Georgia Unfiltered | Telling the Truth

[bu2]

LaVista Hills passed the Senate today. Goes back to the House.

Haven't heard about Tucker, but they are also supposed to have a vote today.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by bu2

LaVista Hills passed the Senate today. Goes back to the House.

Haven't heard about Tucker, but they are also supposed to have a vote today.

Tucker passed, too. Unfortunately, with Fran Millar's dirty trick boundaries. Hopefully the house will put the boundaries back where they were and both cities can head to the ballot box.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by JPD

Tucker passed, too. Unfortunately, with Fran Millar's dirty trick boundaries. Hopefully the house will put the boundaries back where they were and both cities can head to the ballot box.

Agreed.

[bu2]

LVH lost the areas west of Briarcliff and there were some +/- adjustments south of Toco Hills. So the Senate both gave and took away.

If the Senate changes were based on what residents wanted (Livesey, Toco Hills, LaVista Park, Briar Vista), then that makes a better map IMO.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by bu2

LVH lost the areas west of Briarcliff and there were some +/- adjustments south of Toco Hills. So the Senate both gave and took away.

If the Senate changes were based on what residents wanted (Livesey, Toco Hills, LaVista Park, Briar Vista), then that makes a better map IMO.

My post was referring to the Livsey land grab that happened just a few days ago. It doesn't matter to me what happens to Toco Hills, LaVista Park or Briar Vista, because unlike Livsey, none of those places are an integral part of a unified town that has existed for over 100 years.

[Airforceguy]

Georgia legislators are forming study committees that aims to clarify how the state should handle future cityhood, annexation and deannexation proposals.

The state House of Representatives approved creating the city study group Friday with a 164-0 vote on House Resolution 743. A similar measure for a separate Senate study, Senate Resolution 609, is pending in that chamber.

One of the goals of the effort is to set standardized rules for incorporations in hopes of avoiding the complex process that has surrounded efforts to pass bills for several potential cities, including LaVista Hills, South Fulton, Stonecrest and Tucker. Legislation for those cities is still alive until this year’s session of the Georgia General Assembly ends Thursday.

State lawmakers to review city creation process | www.ajc.com

[bu2]

From various blogs, I've seen postings that the McLendon ES area is now in the Atlanta annexation map, so the Atlanta annexation zone snakes all the way to 285. I've seen other people claim that its dead for this session since DeKalb legislators oppose it. Also that Tucker's sponsor withdrew his support because of the map change (I guess he's trying to kill both bills-can't have his whole cake so he wants no one to have cake).

Apparently we'll have a good idea on Tuesday where all these things are going. Tuesday is the next session of the legislature and is day 39 of 40. Thursday will be the final session.

[bu2]

Mason Mill and Medlock fight inclusion in LaVista Hills' map - Decaturish

The neighborhoods of Mason Mill and Medlock are fighting a recent map change by Sen. Fran Millar, SD-40, that puts them in the proposed city of LaVista Hills.
Last week, the Senate State and Local Governmental Operations Committee approved proposals to create the cities of LaVista Hills and Tucker, but with controversial changes to a compromise map that was created last year.
Sen. Millar’s map alteration moved residents of the Livsey precinct from Tucker into LaVista Hills. It also put the Toco Hills retail district and North DeKalb Mall in LaVista Hills. As a result, portions of the neighborhoods of Mason Mill and Medlock were also placed in the city of LaVista Hills map, essentially dividing those respective neighborhoods.
The Senate passed the bills with those changes on Wednesday, allowing for the proposed cities of LaVista Hills and Tucker to move forward, and now they go back to the House.
Mary Hinkel, president of the Mason Mill Civic Association, said the Senate changes caught her completely by surprise, especially since the leaders of the proposed city of LaVista Hills had agreed early on in the cityhood process to take Mason Mill out of the map.
“We have been drawn out of the LaVista Hills map that passed the House. So we had no worries until all of the sudden Sen. Millar changed the map,” said Hinkel.
She explained Mason Mill’s opposition to Sen. Millar’s changes in a press release, saying, “While the Mason Mill and Medlock neighborhoods remained intact in the original House-drawn map, Senator Millar presented a new map to the Senate created by the Legislative and Congressional Reapportionment Office. The office relies on census-block mapping techniques, rather than more up-to-date geographic information software. As a result, in order to draw the commercial areas of Toco Hills and North DeKalb mall into the new LaVista Hills map, the office also had to include the residential properties in the same census blocks, thus splitting the neighborhoods.”
....
So what happens next in the legislative process?
“That’s a very good question. We’re not really sure what’s going to happen now. As far as we know, and we’re not involved anymore in this, Sen. Millar, Sen. Parent, Rep. Oliver, Rep. Holcomb, and whoever else is involved are hopefully going to work something out,” said Woodworth.
Hinkel said, “We are calling for a conference committee to be called for on House Bill 520, and that they honor the solutions that we came to on Tuesday and that they do a metes-and-bounds description of this southern boundary.”