Avondale Estates recently held the third community-input meeting on its comprehensive plan, which needs updating every 10 years. One significant revelation emerging from of plan’s online survey is that a majority of residents favor annexation, a controversial topic last fall and winter. Last October, for instance, former Mayor Ed Rieker drew the wrath of many after admitting he asked State Representative Karla Drenner (D-Avondale Estates) back in January 2014, to submit an Avondale annexation bill to the Georgia Legislature. There had been no public meetings on the subject, and at that time it appeared the city was passionately against annexation.
But the poll, completed by 343 people, had a number of comments regarding the assimilation of commercial property into the city, with 51 percent favoring annexation, 29 percent unsure and only 20 percent against.
Annexation figures to once again become a hot-button topic if the cites of LaVista Hills and Tucker receive voter-approval in November. Current Mayor Jonathan Elmore, who won a special election in March to complete Rieker’s term, ran on a pro-annexation platform.
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