Buckhead City A Viable Proposition, Feasibility Study Says

ATLANTA — Buckhead City is a viable venture, a feasibility study reports.

A Valdosta State University review into the viability of a Buckhead City, released Monday evening, says that a city could generate enough revenue to either save taxpayer dollars or support “enhanced and/or new services.”

That determination was based upon findings that the proposed city could generate more than $203 million a year in revenue with annual expenses of nearly $90 million, leaving an approximately $113 million surplus.

“A proposed Buckhead City would be financially feasible,” the feasibility study executive summary from Valdosta State University’s Center for South Georgia Regional Impact concluded.

Buckhead City Committee CEO Bill White, who leads the nonprofit spearheading the cityhood movement, said the study confirmed what many residents, business owners and community leaders had long believed.

“We’ve been saying all along that taxes paid to the City of Atlanta have not generated a fair return for Buckhead in terms of city services,” White said. “This feasibility study demonstrates that point inarguably, mathematically and once and for all.”

The rise in violent crime over the past year has driven the secession movement. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms looks to stave off any Buckhead departure from Atlanta, although she will have ended her term in office by the time a potential referendum goes out. Bottoms suggested that the best way to overcome the city's crime problem is as Atlantans working together.

“As we continue our efforts towards increasing public safety in Buckhead, and beyond, it is our sincere hope that Atlantans will remain united in working to address the challenges before us,” she said in an email to Patch. “Any effort to segregate Atlanta along racial, economic and party lines is an affront to who we are as a city.”

Jim Durrett, executive director of the Buckhead Community Improvement District and president of the Buckhead Coalition, is another leader in opposition to cityhood. In an email to Patch, Durrett questioned how independent the study is of White's influence

“The head of the Buckhead cityhood committee has been publicly touting the results of this study well before it was even completed,” he said, referring to White. “Clearly, the intended results of what is supposed to be an independent study were established first.

Durrett also cautioned that pulling Buckhead away from Atlanta would be difficult, costly, and ultimately damaging.

“The report takes an overly simple approach and does not account for the multiple, extreme complexities arising from this de-annexation and incorporation, he said. “It did not assess the long-term legal and fiscal entanglements that will result from any de-annexation effort, including what will be required of Buckhead residents regarding existing debt and pension obligations in the City of Atlanta.

“There was no examination of the fallout of the political and social unrest that will take place if Buckhead breaks away from Atlanta. Businesses do not invest in uncertain, politically volatile environments.”

Still, White insisted that a new city would offer more in the way of safety to citizens.

“Given the same tax revenue, the administration of Buckhead City would deliver more and better services to the people of Buckhead, starting with a highly effective and properly compensated police force with a minimum of 250 officers,” he said.

That projected number of police officers is based upon FBI data estimating that southern cities should have 2.5 officers per 1,000 residents. That total accounts for 175 patrol officers, which is more than double the 80 Atlanta Police officers assigned to Zone 2, according to the study. And the study projects a starting salary of $55,000 for police officers, versus $48,000 that starting APD academy graduates receive.

Policing has been a lynchpin in the efforts to carve the new city out from Atlanta’s north side. Rising crime across the country and in Atlanta has prompted elected officials from outside Buckhead’s borders to lend their notoriety and political capital to the movement.

State Sen. Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta) and House Rep. Todd Jones (R-South Forsyth) each penned legislation in their respective chambers of the Gold Dome to bring the issue to a ballot referendum for Buckhead residents. The completion of the feasibility study is part of the requirement for new city legislation mandated by the House Government Affairs Committee.

State Sen. Clint Dixon (R-Gwinnett) signed on to the bill and brings his vote — and influence over other GOP committee members — on the Senate State and Local Operations Committee that oversees, among other things, statewide legislation that applies to cities.

“There is now no question — and it is no surprise — that a Buckhead City would be financially feasible,” said Dixon.

State Agriculture Commissioner and 2022 Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Gary Black (who grew up in southwest Atlanta but lives in Commerce) on Monday lent his political backing by endorsing the movement, saying he supported the “self-determination” of residents and business owners wanting to move away from Atlanta.

Other findings show that Buckhead City would have its own city administration mayor and city council, as well as its own municipal courts, fire, parks, and public works departments. The proposed city, however, would continue to rely on Atlanta for services like trash collection, water, and libraries, and Atlanta Public Schools, funding each through negotiated taxes and fees.

Durrett warned that taking away what could amount to 20 percent of Atlanta's population, and what some have estimated as 40 percent of the city's tax dollars, could cripple the city and, subsequently, the region.

“It would be devastating to the city’s finances, residents, and the business community,” he said. “Certainly, a weaker Atlanta does not make a safer Buckhead.”