Here is a statement made by some who oppose the city. “Under GA code, there are 5 ways that a community might be annexed by a nearby municipality. The first 4 require a vote by the residents to be annexed. The last is the only way lands can be annexed without a vote by the residents. But it only applies to areas of unincorporated land completely surrounded by an existing municipality and thus it does not apply to us.”
The facts are here. Actually, only one method requires a “vote”, Resolution and Referendum. The Local Legislation method only requires a referendum if the area being annexed contains more than 50% residential property (by acreage) AND includes a population exceeding 30% of the city population or 500 persons, whichever is less. So annexation by legislation can include residential property, no vote required.
Then there are two methods that require some level of agreement from those being annexed. The 100 Percent method requires all to agree to be annexed and is available only in areas contiguous to the city. This is the method Norcross has used to annex the Holiday Inn, a bank and 2 other properties.
Berkeley Lake is using the 60 - 40 Percent method in the area between Peachtree Industrial and South Old Peachtree, on the east side. Based on an open records request, we found that 14 properties have requested to be annexed, from the Berkeley Lake/Duluth border all the way south to the Dairy Queen. These properties clearly are not all contiguous to Berkeley Lake. In fact, there are gaps where properties have declined to be annexed. But they can be annexed provided that the owners of not less than 60% of the land area (by acreage) agree to be annexed. For residential property, it requires 60% of the resident voters in the area to submit the request. If there is a mix of uses, both conditions are applied.
By using this method, Berkeley Lake will also be annexing the West Gwinnett Water Park. Why is this an issue? They have no record for running parks and recreation areas, unless you count their management of the dam on their lake. Also, the park pays storm water fees to the county that go to maintain the county wide storm water infrastructure. These fees will be lost to the county. If they annex all the way to the Dairy Queen, they will also annex Pinckneyville Park.
Using the 60-40 method, Duluth has annexed all of Blue Ridge Industrial Park. Only 9 of the 13 owners agreed to be annexed. However, they represented 72% of the land area. So the remaining 4 properties are now part of Duluth, without their consent.
The annexation of Peachtree Corners commercial properties has begun. Norcross and Berkeley Lake continue to pursue the annexation option. Duluth was successful in obtaining the properties they wanted. So while our neighboring cities are not going for residential property at this time, if these annexations continue, they will be able to exercise the final annexation method, Annexation of Unincorporated Islands. No vote required here. As businesses around us are annexed, what is left of Peachtree Corners become isolated islands and can be annexed unilaterally.
How can we stop this? Vote YES to the City of Peachtree Corners on November 8th.
