By Joe Earle
A standing-room-only crowd of about 100 residents filled a meeting room at the Capitol on Dec. 3 to voice support for one of two proposed new cities – LaVista Hills or Tucker – and to argue over which should claim disputed territory. Some residents objected to creation of either city, saying carving new cities would harm DeKalb County services or schools.
State lawmakers were appointed to a subcommittee after proponents of the two cities were unable to reach agreement on a map. Originally, three groups proposed cities in the area, but two – ones proposing cities named Briarcliff and Lakeside – merged to create the LaVista Hills plan.
Although the subcommittee hearing was scheduled to last 90 minutes, it went on for three hours.
Proponents of a proposed city of Tucker argued the map they submitted for their town reflected the area’s history. “Tucker is a well-known place,” Frank Auman of Tucker 2015 said, showing how the name “Tucker” appeared in Census areas and road names and even had its own ZIP code.
But a portion of Tucker’s map overlaps areas that LaVista Hills proponents want included in their planned new city. Those areas are both east and west of I-285.
About 23,000 residents live in the disputed areas, Auman said, so putting them in LaVista Hills would increase the population of that city to about 72,000 while cutting Tucker’s population to about 30,000. If the residents are placed in Tucker, both cities would be roughly the same size, Tucker’s proponents said.
The area also includes a number of businesses in and around Northlake Mall, which could provide taxes needed to support the new city governments.
Dan Chapman, a volunteer for LaVista Hills Yes, said that city’s plan “would show equal revenue per capita.” Auman responded that’s because LaVista Hill’s plan calls for more people in that city than in Tucker, not because it provides for an even division of tax revenues
Despite Tucker’s historic claims, some residents of the area told the lawmakers they were attracted to LaVista Hills because the plans for that new city include a new police department.
“I want to be in LaVista Hills and not in Tucker because they don’t public safety as part of their plan,” said Greg Holcomb, who lives in the disputed area just outside the Perimeter in a community called Northcrest. “To me, that’s the purpose of government. They want to be a ‘city light’ and ‘city light’ isn’t right for Northcrest.”
Read an expanded version of this story at Reporter Newspapers.
