Attached here is the feasibility study prepared by the City, titled City of Stone Mountain Annexation Study, January 17, 2014.
In their presentation to the Smoke Rise Civic Association, January 16, 2014, City Manager Gary Peet highlighted several advantages that Stone Mountain would offer the Smoke Rise neighborhoods, including improved local police coverage, improved trash services at a lower cost, and a full service city at a lower tax rate than Smoke Residents are paying now, to the County, and lower than they would pay if included in the proposed City of Tucker.
Stone Mountain pursued this study and annexation proposal at the request of several business interests located in the Stone Mountain CID, who were interested in an alternative to the chaotic situation currently found in the incorporation movement in central DeKalb County.
City of Stone Mountain Annexation Study, January 17, 2014
Map of the proposed annexation, including the proposed City of Tucker.
Map of the proposed annexation, including the proposed City of Tucker.
If I lived in Smokerise, I would be concerned that the Smokerise school attendence zone would be relocated the Stone Mountain High School. In the last effort by Dekalb Schools to close and redistrict schools, in an effort to balance student population in the high schools, they were proposed to move Idlewood School from the Tucker zone to the Stone Mountain HS zone, and Evansdale School from lakeside to Tucker. That proposal was dismissed, but the problem still remains. When it resurfaces, if Smokrise is then a part of Stone Mountain city, then it would be very easy for Dekalb Schools to move Smokerise Elementary as the first and best option. And no one in Smokerise would want to to send their children to Stone Mountain High School.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see that the blog's been updated. Very interesting news about Stone Mountain's annexation proposal, and in case you haven't heard also Clarkston's annexation proposal:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.clarkstonga.gov/images/F6_3Clarkston_Annexation_p2_aerial_overall_02.pdf
Clarkston's new mayor has said that his current top priority is annexation. Their map includes Brockett Road south of 78, which is also in Tucker's map. I was told Tucker included that area because it went to Clarkston's current border, so as not to leave an unincorprated island. I also heard people say that another good reason to have that area in Tucker's proposal was that kids in that area currently go to Tucker schools. Both ideas make sense, but in light of Clarkston's proposal, I think the area should be part of Clarkston. It already has a Clarkston zip code, a store called the Clarkston Food Mart, and the sign coming off 78 East points to Clarkston that way and Tucker in the opposite direction.
Clarkston's proposal also includes a small area of office and industrial inside 285, which is also in Briarcliff's map. I'm not sure how that should be resolved, but it too currently has a Clarkston zip code.
Stone Mountain's proposal is huge. Their population would more than triple. I understand that business owners in the CID wanted this study, so it makes me wonder if this is a situation similar to the Century Center Chamblee/Brookhaven issue. Maybe the owners would prefer Stone Mountain to Tucker, or maybe if Tucker doesn't become a city then they want a fallback.
The Smoke Rise neighborhood and everything south of 78 has Stone Mountain zip codes. Most of the kids south of 78 go to Stone Mountain schools. I think Tucker's main interest is the rest of the industrial park south of 78. North of 78, the industrial park is all in Tucker's zip code, yet it still has the name Stone Mountain attached to it.
I am very interested to know what Smoke Rise residents think about this choice. Enough of them already wanted to distance themselves from Stone Mountain by having the postal service allow them to use Smoke Rise, Georgia. The other commenter is right in that parents may not be excited about having their kids go to Stone Mountain rather than Tucker, but how many families with children attending local DeKalb schools are there in Smoke Rise these days? Certainly not as many as 10 or 20 years ago.
I think Tucker needs Northlake and the industrial park to be feasible, not to mention Smoke Rise's higher property values. The worst case scenario for Tucker is Lakeside goes ahead and Stone Mountain and Clarkston's annexations go through. Then a little sliver of Tucker is left sandwiched in between the two cities.
Thank you for the new information on Clarkston! I check all the city websites for information like this, but, as is the case here, you can't find these pages going through the website's normal links. I've posted the map to the next article on the blog, which is about annexation procedures.
DeleteA different map which I just posted to that annexation article shows a different take on the Clarkston possible annexations. The information I've shown came from the DeKalb Municipal Association, which had a hand-drawn map they used at the incorporation meeting held by the DeKalb Delegation at the General Assembly on Thursday, January 9th. I do not know how to account for the discrepancies, as the DMA map showed a considerably larger area being targeted by Clarkston.
You're welcome. The cityhood proposals get plenty of press, but annexation information is hard to find. Local news outlets don't even cover it. That's why appreciate your blog as a clearinghouse.
DeleteThe link I posted was created at least one month ago, so your information is more up to date. Since the new Clarkston mayor is big on annexation, I wouldn't be surprised if he pushed to expand the original proposal.
The excellent map you posted is too small for me to make out everything in detail, but I'm shocked by Clarkston's push north of 78. Starting at 285 and Lawrenceville Highway, the northern boundary would go west along L'ville Hwy to the intersection with N Druid Hills (would they take North DeKalb Mall?). The western bounday appears to follow Valley Brook and then North Decatur Rd, taking in part of Scottdale. The southern boundary seems to follow North Decatur outside 285 and then Memorial Drive as in the original map. The eastern boundary is now Rays Road and includes the residents west of Rays Road who are in Clarkston's zip code. Then the boundary appears to go up Idlewood Road, into 30084, and even take in the elementary school, which is mostly populated by students from the apartments along Brockett and E Ponce in 30021. The northern boundary goes back west along 78, up Cooledge Road and along L'ville Hwy to 285. It looks like they're competing with Tucker and Lakeside for the Emory surgical center, and are also interested in the future Twin Brothers Lake park area.
Quite an expansion!