Members of DeKalb County’s legislative delegation expect the creation of new cities, including a proposed city of Brookhaven, to be among the top local issues when the General Assembly meets next year.
District 83 Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver said she thought Georgia, especially the metro Atlanta area, was in a “process of municipalizing.”
“I want it to be as smart a process as possible,” she said during a public meeting with legislators at Chamblee Middle School on Nov. 10.
District 81 Rep. Elena Parent agreed. “It’s going to be in Forsyth, it’s going to be in Douglas. … It’s time to have a broader discussion about this before anybody else goes about it.”
Oliver, one of seven lawmakers who attended the Chamblee gathering, said she planned to pre-file a bill to be considered in the next legislative session that would require areas seeking to incorporate to take at least two years to do so. She noted that the incorporation discussion in Brookhaven would meet the requirements because District 80 Rep. Mike Jacobs filed a “place-holder” bill to start the process during the past legislative session.
A non-profit group called Citizens for North DeKalb this week released a study showing a city of Brookhaven could be financed without a property tax increase on residents of the area. The property tax millage now collected by the county to finance county services would instead pay for city services. Jacobs said this week that the city likely could reduce taxes below present county levels.
Oliver told the 30 or so people attending the legislative discussion that she wants to devise a way for surrounding communities to have a voice in the creation of cities.
“I think the economic viability of Brookhaven has to be explored with its neighbors,” she said. “It cannot be a designer district. How you do that is a task I want to explore.”
DeKalb County Commissioner Jeff Rader, who attended the delegation meeting, has asked the commission to request state lawmakers place a moratorium on the creation of new cities in DeKalb until the process and its effects on the community can be studied.
But Jacobs said communities “have their own localized reasons” for wanting to become cities and said state policy has been to let local communities decide for themselves whether to incorporate. “Local citizens should have the opportunity to control their own space,” he said.
He cited a controversial billboard in Brookhaven as an example of the need for local control. “I think this has to come from the bottom up rather than the top down,” he said.
Resident John Stabler, who said he lives just outside the area that would be included in the proposed city of Brookhaven, supported the call for a moratorium. “Slow it down,” he said. “We don’t know where it’s going. We might end up with a … Swiss-cheese-type county.”
Parent, who represents areas that would be included in the proposed city and areas that would be outside it, said the present process seemed “flawed.”
“What does it mean when we create new governments?” she asked. “I want efficient government and governments that don’t create new rifts.”
