Hello to a City of South Fulton?

A ‘yes’ vote could mean self-governance for 87,000 people - and an end to Atlanta’s westward expansion

If the residents of unincorporated South Fulton County decide to make themselves a city in November, it will become the state’s ninth largest municipality overnight. Sorry, Johns Creek.

Supporters say people living in the area can generate the revenues needed to provide required services. And they think becoming a city would mean self-determination for about 87,000 people who reside in the large swath of land west of Atlanta, East Point, and College Park and north of Chattahoochee Hills. But voters might not be convinced.

South Fulton is the last part of the state’s most populous county that hasn’t been incorporated and is not overseen by local elected officials who decide what to buy with local tax money. But becoming a city involves serious financial decisions that will affect every resident and will determine what police force answers residents’ 911 calls, what school system their children attend, and how much they pay in property taxes.

State Rep. Roger Bruce, D-Atlanta, a cityhood fan and author of the legislation that set up the referendum, says one of the benefits of setting up a new city will be local control.

“Right now that area is being governed by people who don’t live in the area,” says Bruce, referring to the Fulton County Commission, the elected leaders who oversee the county. “And as a result of that, they are not sensitive to the needs and the conditions under which people are living in the area.”

Bruce says South Fulton has by default been operating as a city, complete with a tax to bankroll area public services such as fire coverage. He says the likelihood of property taxes increasing in a new city “are very low” and points to a Georgia State University study saying that a city could be financially viable.

But not everyone’s convinced, says Dominique Huff of Home Rule News, a publication that covers local politics in several counties, including South Fulton. He says he thinks voters want to know how their quality of life could change, for better or worse, with another layer of government in place.

“[What] people want to know is what will the service level be and at what cost,” Huff says.

Unincorporated South Fulton resident Corro’ll Driskell, the co-founder of the South Fulton Homeowners Association Alliance, says he’s “not advocating for annexation, de-annexation, incorporation. I’m advocating for an informed decision.” But the arguments put up by the cityhood proponents don’t convince him.

Driskell says he wants to see a detailed plan of city operations and a budget that lists what services could be offered and at what cost — something more like the detailed study the people behind Sandy Springs published before that city’s 2005 incorporation vote.

While parts of metro Atlanta have cityhood fever, out in the rest of the state it’s not so hot. The city of Macon and Bibb County actually consolidated in 2013. Even in dysfunctional DeKalb County, where voters approved creating Tucker last year (no, it wasn’t a city already), residents rejected the creation of LaVista Hills. Sure, DeKalb has some problems, but LaVista Hills cityhood critics said it would be better to fix the county than create something new.

It’s worth noting that South Fulton voters have faced this question before. In 2007, some 85 percent of voters in the area rejected a previous cityhood proposal. Back then, residents were uninformed and wanted to be left alone, Bruce says. But neighboring cities have picked off pieces of land and county residents have seen their county elected officials forced to run against one another.

“It’s no longer a question of ‘can you stay as you are?’ because you already have not been able to stay as you were,” Bruce says.

At the same time South Fulton advocates are finalizing the proposed city’s map that will be presented to voters, some neighborhoods are opting out of the new city question altogether. Several groups of homeowners on the edges of the proposed area are scrambling to petition to join Atlanta — and more may do so.

The Loch Lomond neighborhood on Atlanta’s west side, a community with a few hundred homes, is also asking to join the city. Atlanta City Councilwoman Mary Norwood has asked city staff to double-check to ensure the petitioners have enough signatures to legally join the city. Several other places, including a large area in Sandtown and smaller ones in South Oaks, and very recently, Cascade Falls and Martins Park, have submitted applications to join the city.

Anyone who wants to join Atlanta faces a tight timeline. After July 1, nearly anything that’s not part of a city will be considered eligible to become part of the new City of South Fulton. If voters approve creating the municipality, that ends the expansion of Atlanta’s city borders in the area, and drastically alters the demographics for future City Hall elections, as it’s a large voting bloc of African-American votes. What seems like yet another city could have more of an impact than expected.