Buckhead Cityhood Bill Prefiled For Georgia Senate's 2022 Session

ATLANTA — A bill asking voters to create Buckhead City awaits Georgia Assembly members to return to the Gold Dome in January.

State Sen. Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta) on Thursday prefiled Senate Bill 324 ahead of the winter legislative session that begins the first of the year.

The bill will propose the new city and place a ballot referendum for voters Buckhead on the November 2022 ballot.

“Since the summer of 2020, the rise of crime throughout the city of Atlanta has been alarming and has caused many citizens to feel for their safety, even in broad daylight,” Beach said. “Over the past few weeks, we have heard testimony first-hand from Buckhead residents who feel their needs are not currently being addressed and what the proposed incorporation would entail.”

A small faction of residents came together in 2020 to form the study group that would evolve into the Buckhead City Committee. Now with all of the steps in place, including a favorable feasibility study, money in the bank to pay for lobbying and other needs, and a companion state House bill in the wings, the path seems clear to take the measure to the voters.

This comes despite push-back from state lawmakers representing Buckhead and a fiscal analysis that concluded a Buckhead City would be detrimental to the Metro Atlanta region.

And in spite of vocal criticism from Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom, Atlanta Police leaders, former Atlanta Mayor Sam Massell, and Buckhead Coalition president Jim Durrett. The two candidates vying to take office as Atlanta Mayor in 2022, Felicia Moore and Andre Dickens, have both voiced opposition to Buckhead cityhood, according to Atlanta Intown, saying the “divorce would be unnecessarily expensive for both spouses (Dickens),” and that both sides should “go into marriage therapy (Moore).”

Still, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution survey, more than half of Buckhead voters polled supported cityhood.

“I believe it is now the time for citizens in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta to have the ability to determine for themselves whether to form their own city and establish services which would be more responsive to their needs,” Beach said.