Georgia senators advanced proposals for LaVista Hills and Tucker to become cities, but not before tinkering with their borders in a move that could endanger their chances of winning final approval.
The Senate State and Local Governmental Operations Committee shifted 2,000 residents from Tucker’s map and put them into LaVista Hills boundaries, altering an agreement reached in the House of Representatives in December that settled a battle for territory. The area that was moved Thursday is around Livsey Elementary, located southeast of Spaghetti Junction.
The committee approved the cities’ revised borders, and a vote in the full Senate could come next week. Then the House of Representatives, which passed a version of the cityhood proposals last week, would have to vote on whether to accept or reject the Senate’s alterations.
Senator Fran Millar, R-Atlanta, pushed for the change in the map after hearing from residents who wanted to join LaVista Hills.
“I think this will work because I think the Tucker and LaVista Hills people want their cities,” Millar said. “If we don’t do it this year, I think we’re done” because lawmakers won’t have an appetite for going through this contentious process again next year.
The city of LaVista Hills would have a population of about 67,000 people in north-central DeKalb, stretching from an area outside Emory University to the eastern perimeter of I-285. The city of Tucker would be home to about 33,000 residents, mostly located to the east of the interstate.
Millar said he would also support passage of a city of Stonecrest in South DeKalb if LaVista Hills and Tucker pass next week.
Then residents in the affected areas would decide in a November referendum whether they want to incorporate. If they vote in favor of the idea, about 150,000 more people in DeKalb County would live in cities instead of unincorporated parts of DeKalb.
Supporters of a city of Tucker legislation, House Bill 515, said they felt betrayed by the late change in their borders, just two weeks before this year’s legislative session concludes April 2.
“We’re disappointed that there was a breach in the agreement,” said Michelle Penkava of Tucker 2015. The House compromise committee “said that whoever messes with the borders is at risk of losing their bill. Clearly, adding steps to the process makes everything more difficult.”
But Liz Hanfelt, who lives in the Livsey Elementary precinct, said she wanted to be part of LaVista Hills because it would provide police and road services, while Tucker’s smaller city government would only provide planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation.
“The whole reason for having a new city is to have representation that’s lower and closer to the people,” Hanfelt told the committee as she spoke on the LaVista Hills measure, House Bill 520.
The committee also considered the creation of a city of South Fulton but didn’t take a vote.
South Fulton could move forward under a different process because it’s considered to be local legislation, which means it needs the support of a majority of the area’s senators rather than the committee that passed LaVista Hills and Tucker. The Georgia House of Representatives passed the South Fulton measure, House Bill 514, last week.
South Fulton would encompass about 90,000 residents in much of the land south of Atlanta that isn’t already part of a city.
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