Jason Lary and a group of his neighbors in southeast DeKalb County have worked to incorporate their neighborhood into the new city of Stonecrest for almost four years, but their wait could end after a Nov. 8 vote.
Voters in the area around Stonecrest Mall will decide whether or not to form their own city, one that would give the area a clear identity and stop a quickening deterioration.
If the vote passes, Stonecrest would be organized by a commission appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal until elections in late March. The city would open for business on April 1.
At first, the city will offer just three services: code enforcement, planning and zoning and parks and recreation.
Lary said city would likely add a police department within two years if a DeKalb SPLOST vote passes in 2017. That vote was delayed from this year as negotiations between the county and other new cities were not complete.
That delay could really help Stonecrest, if it forms. Stonecrest would have been excluded from a SPLOST vote in 2016, but if the city opens before a SPLOST vote in 2017, it stands to take in about $40 million. That money could be used to fun start-up costs for a police department.
Lary, who is president of the Stonecrest Yes Committee, said the idea for a new city popped into his head in 2012 while he was in a Leadership DeKalb class. He formed the committee in January 2013 and began working on making it happen.
He watched the neighborhoods decline and employers go elsewhere.
“I said to myself, ‘this is not going to get any better,’” he said.
As cities in central and northern DeKalb and northern Fulton County formed, he decided to follow the example.
“I wondered why we can’t be like that,” he said. “Those cities did a great job of branding their areas. It is an identity. We need a solid identity.”
Attracting new businesses, and jobs, was only part of the plan, though.
“Our area is rapidly deteriorating,” he said. “We did not see a way for the county to fix this for us.”
Lary said about 80 percent of people he talks to support voting for the city. The remainder either doesn’t know or are opposed.
Lary said there is no organized opposition to the measure, unlike what was seen in other new city votes.
