New Cities in DeKalb 2015

DeKalb County GA new city committees are on a tear to gather up unincorporated areas of the county and form new cities.  The primary reason for forming your own city has been to get control of their zoning issues, but the added expenses are indefensible and the city staff will control zoning issues, not the voters.  If you want your roads fixed, don’t rely on cityhood as a solution.  Instead, form a Special District for Roads, otherwise you roads will never be fixed.

Size Matters

Some of DeKalb’s cities are really too small in square miles (sm.) to be cities and may want to consider consolidation. These include Norcross 4.1 sm. Chamblee 3.1 sm. Doraville 3.6 sm.

Other cities are mid-size, but still don’t have enough revenue to fix their roads.  They are Peachtree Corners 16.2 sm. Dunwoody 13.1 sm. and Brookhaven 12 sm. 

Unincorporated areas of counties looking to form new cities need to think it through.  In DeKalb County, the new city needs to be at least 40 square miles with a population of 90,000 or more, like Roswell and Sandy Springs.  They are large enough to justify city status. Johns Creek is 32 sm. with a 70,000 population and Alpharetta is 21 sm. with a 60,000 population.

New cities may result in lower county taxes, but it will be more than made up for by the increased expense of city formation. It doesn’t have to be that way, but your City Council will, no doubt, hire consulting firms to make all the decisions for them. UN Agenda 21 is being implemented through these consulting firms. All of your city ordinances will be carbon copies of all other new city ordinances. Building codes will all be “international”. You will need permits and inspections for everything your do and fines if you do things yourself without a permit. 

Counties are too large to be invasive, but these new cities are

Federal grants to states are distributed by ARC, GDOT and MARTA to ensure that new city councils are “led” to cooperate.  The city staff ends up running the city.  Voter objections to excessive city spending on “economic development” and fluff are ignored by the city council. The millions spent on “community development” would be better put to use by restoring road maintenance.

Community Development includes the bureaucratic expense to enforce ordinances to limit your property use.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader