DeKalb Cityhood Bonanza Stretches UGA Institute

The University of Georgia institute studying the prospect of cityhood for three DeKalb County communities has had to add staff to handle its sudden new workload.

The university's Carl Vinson Institute of Government had to recruit staff from two outside departments now that it's studying cityhood plans for groups in the Druid Hills, Lakeside and Stonecrest areas, the City of Briarcliff Initiative said in a recent newsletter to supporters.

From the newsletter:

We experienced a delay in securing a contract for our economic study — and this delayed our initial newsletter.  CVIOG had already made commitments to perform studies for the proposed cities of Lakeside and Stonecrest.  They expressed concern about handling the workload of an additional study.  This roadblock was resolved by CVIOG arranging additional staff support from two other academic departments at UGA.  We received confirmation from CVIOG on Tuesday, July 23rd.

The institute is handling state-mandated cityhood studies for the Briarcliff group, the Lakeside City Alliance and a group in the Stonecrest area near Stone Mountain. A group called City of Tucker 2014 is also fundraising to start a study required by state law for any group interested in pursuing cityhood. Cityhood groups can also pay a similar department at Georgia State University for the study.

The City of Briarcliff Initiative participated in a cityhood/annexation forum in the Druid Hills community Tuesday night that included interim DeKalb County CEO Lee May and representatives from the Atlanta's mayor's office.