The 72,000-person city of LaVista Hills is being proposed to Georgia lawmakers Monday, combining the communities of Lakeside and Briarcliff.
A panel of five state legislators will work on creating compromise maps for LaVista Hills and Tucker, both of which want to win state approval for incorporation next year. Their borders currently overlap at Northlake Mall and other areas surrounding Interstate 285.
LaVista Hills could stretch from the Druid Hills neighborhood near Atlanta and beyond the intersection of I-285 and I-85.
“Cityhood is about giving communities and citizens a choice,” said Mary Kay Woodworth, an organizer for LaVista Hills who previously supported a city of Lakeside. “We continue to listen and respond to what residents and business tell us, and to the community’s desires.”
The city of Tucker would include about 55,000 residents and reach from the intersection of the highways to areas to the south and east. LaVista Hills and Tucker would share a border roughly around I-285.
“The Tucker community remains committed to cityhood for Tucker, and trusts that the process … will bring about a solution that is fair and respectful of our long-standing and recognized community while allowing our neighbors in other areas to achieve their own vision of local control,” said Michelle Penkava of Tucker 2015.”
State representatives had set a Saturday deadline for cityhood movements to reach a compromise on boundaries, but that deadline passed without an agreement.
The chairwoman of the House Governmental Affairs Committee, Rep. Amy Carter, has said state lawmakers would take control of the process if the communities seeking cityhood couldn’t agree on boundaries.
The panel she appoints will be responsible for drawing borders that will be considered during the 2015 legislative session.
If approved by the Legislature, residents in each area would then vote on whether to approve the creation of their cities.
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