from the MANA Working Group:
Representatives of the MANA Working Group on Annexation met with Rep. Rahn Mayo on February 9 at his request. We again discussed our concerns about Areas A and B in the proposed Decatur
annexation. Specifically, we discussed concerns that should parts of our neighborhood and nearby commercial cease to be in the same jurisdiction, residents who will be directly impacted by Decatur's development plans will have no say on how those areas are developed. Read this statement to learn about some of our concerns, which were voiced before Decatur decided to seize the whole Medline LCI study area.
As far as Rep. Mayo knows, nobody is yet sponsoring either the Atlanta or Decatur
annexation.
We discussed a working draft of an Atlanta annexation map for MANA that essentially includes MANA boundaries, plus parts of what Decatur’s annexation map labels as Areas A and B. We
also gave a copy of the map to Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, who didn't say much except that the
Atlanta proposal had run into some conflicts. As Rep. Oliver said, everything is in flux.
We also attended the DeKalb County house delegation meeting. The DeKalb
Municipal Association was there with various mayors, city managers, etc. City of Decatur
representatives talked about their need to annex business property and how wrong it was to say they
weren't taking residential areas; they told the group that their mayor will be sending a letter to the
delegation soon.
It is fair to say that at this point the only certainty is that
Decatur is continuing to push for legislative support of its unreasonable annexation plans.
Let's continue to remind the DeKalb Delegation why Decatur's annexation is a bad idea; their
email addresses are available on this site. If you haven’t signed the petition at
https://www.change.org/p/the-dekalb-delegation-to-the-georgia-general-assembly-say-no-to-the-city-of-decatur-annexing-dekalb-county-commercial-properties
