Annex re-vote today a model

Today’s re-vote on annexation in Doraville could be a sign of things to come in DeKalb County, where three other cities are still looking to expand their borders.

State officials and leaders from Avondale Estates, Chamblee and Decatur will be watching to see voters in three neighborhoods decide to join Doraville —- wondering if an approval will create momentum for their own annexation efforts.

“If you want to be efficient and look at the best use of tax dollars, we ought to be looking for that,” state Rep. Fran Millar (R-Dunwoody) said of the cities’ efforts to square their borders. “It just makes sense.”

It’s unclear if voters in the Cherokee Hills, Oakcliff Estates and Sequoyah Woods neighborhoods agree. They rejected being annexed into Doraville by 34 votes out of 1,138 cast in the November election. The new vote is being held because of ballot problems that marred the election.

If approved, Doraville would extend to the new city of Dunwoody and would see its population grow by 65 percent, to about 17,000 residents.

Chamblee already has done an analysis that shows adding the Huntley Hills neighborhood would be revenue neutral for the city. But the move would give the city a chance to control growth on several main roads such as Peachtree Industrial Boulevard.

Millar said he is ready to introduce a resolution in the Legislature calling for a vote on the annexation. That election would be held in 2010.

A survey by the homeowners’ association in Huntley Hills says most residents favor annexation. Some residents have even approached the city, asking to be annexed.

“It’s us, doing a better job of being a place that people want to associate with,” Chamblee Mayor Eric Clarkson said.

The same cannot be said for homeowners and businesses being eyed by Decatur and Avondale Estates.

Earlier this month, Decatur backed off of large-scale annexation for the next two years after residents in two large neighborhoods and other mostly commercial pockets made it clear they would reject annexation.

The city said it wanted more time to research the areas and get better census figures. But Mayor Bill Floyd said the city would still look at the nearly all-commercial area along East College Avenue for annexation.

Floyd and Avondale Estates Mayor Ed Rieker met last year to talk about just that strip. Both said they are still interested in annexing the mostly commercial area there, so that their borders meet at Sams Crossing.

“There still seems to be some intention on their part to move their borders east, and we have to be prepared to respond to that,” Rieker said of Decatur’s annexation plans.

The mostly small businesses in the area have banded together, trying to thwart being gobbled up into either city. They view annexation as a money grab, which city leaders admit is partially true. Both Decatur and Avondale are more than 75 percent residential, so adding commercial land will help the tax rolls.

Despite the opposition, though, a resolution allowing both annexations to go forward is expected to at least be introduced in the state Legislature.

State Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Decatur) has twice introduced a measure allowing Avondale to annex its share of the land, though the DeKalb delegation has never moved it forward.

She has asked leaders in both cities to agree on a border.

“They’d like the gateway to Avondale to be cleaned up, and I presume the same for Decatur,” Stuckey Benfield said. “If they ask for that, I will do it.”