Cityhood news: Buckhead financial feasibility study released

*For a larger version of the proposed Buckhead city map, **click here**.*

While a financial feasibility study for a proposed City of East Cobb is expected to be finished in November, a similar study conducted for a group pushing for cityhood in Buckhead was released on Tuesday.

That study, conducted by Valdosta State University, shows a budget surplus of $113 million, even with police and fire services.

The overall budget would be $203 million, according to the study, which is summarized here and can be read in full here.

Those behind the Buckhead breakaway have cited rising crime and pressure on public safety services in the City of Atlanta, and the proposed city would have more patrol officers than what are currently staffed in the Buckhead area.

The proposed City of Buckhead would have a population of just over 100,000 and cover what’s now Atlanta to roughly the I-75/I-85 split.

The other proposed services are public works, parks and recreation and community development.

From the Buckhead.com site is an analysis of the study, and there are a few things about the Buckhead effort worth noting.

First, none of the legislators who have co-sponsored the bill are from the proposed city area, which is required under state law. They’re North Fulton and Gwinnett Republicans, and thus far no Atlanta lawmakers have signed on.

Secondly, the study was done at a small-town South Georgia university that normally limits is work to that part of the state, certainly not a big city.

The Buckhead cityhood group approached the University of Georgia, which declined to do the study. Georgia State University is conducting the East Cobb feasibility study, as it did for the previous East Cobb cityhood effort in 2018.

The website for the pro-cityhood Buckhead City Committee can be found here; a group against cityhood is the Committee for a United Atlanta.

Like the four cityhood efforts in Cobb County, Buckhead legislation filed this year would call for a November 2022 referendum, if that bill is passed by the Georgia legislature next year.

In addition to the renewed East Cobb effort, some Mableton citizens have revived their cityhood ambitions under the South Cobb Alliance. Their impetus has been community redevelopment.

New organizations have been formed to create a City of Vinings and a City of Lost Mountain in West Cobb, which, like the new East Cobb effort, are focused on zoning and development issues.

Feasibility studies for those three proposed Cobb cities also are still underway.