Buckhead Cityhood Bills For November Vote Are Dead; Now What?

ATLANTA, GA — The prospects of a Buckhead City proposal being put to voters this fall are dead for now.

When Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and Georgia House Speaker David Ralston each signaled last week that they would not bring Buckhead cityhood bills before their respective General Assembly chambers, pro-city supporters were left with this question: Now what?

“This movement, Buckhead City, will never end,” Buckhead City Committee CEO Bill White vowed at a recent news conference announcing the movement’s two-pronged strategy going forward. “We are never going to give up.”

A concern about a spike in crime both in the Buckhead neighborhood and across the city of Atlanta prompted the formation of the group that would become the Buckhead City Committee. After just over a year of efforts to get a referendum on the November ballot have failed, the team of business owners and residents must regroup.

Beyond reaffirming the leadership of White, and Sam Lenaius serving as committee president, the primary plan appears to be more of the same.

“We are embarking on a new fundraising campaign to ensure our vote,” White said, pointing to a goal to build upon the roughly $2 million already raised. “If you have a yard sign in your yard, leave it up.”

Meanwhile, opponents of Buckhead cityhood have also refortified their efforts to prevent a split from the city of Atlanta that supporters want.

“The work we have been doing will continue,” said a letter from Committee for a United Atlanta co-chairs Linda Klein and Edward Lindsey. “There is still a chance that legislation to de-annex the Buckhead neighborhood could be brought back before the session ends in early April. Moreover, we should anticipate that similar language may be submitted next year.”

Here, too, the opposition strategy calls for more of the same.

“Please keep your signs in your yards and bumper stickers on your bumpers,” they wrote. “We will carry on with our efforts to communicate, educate, and organize the residents and businesses of Buckhead on the need to keep our city united.”

And a new challenger has risen to push back against Buckhead cityhood. According to the Morgan County Citizen, the town of Buckhead in rural Morgan County is poised to file litigation to trademark its name and “prevent a second municipality from being named ‘Buckhead.’”

The greatest call to action, however, seems to rest on the shoulders of new Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. When Ralston scuttled Buckhead cityhood’s final hopes last week, he left a door open for a possible reprieve in next year’s legislative session if Dickens was unable to right the ship.

"I'm going to be watching to see what action is taken by leaders here in the City of Atlanta," Ralston said. "We'll be back next year if things haven't changed a lot if the problem of how we got here is not solved."

In the first six weeks of 2022, Atlanta Police statistics show that crime has decreased overall compared with the same time last year, although homicides and rape are up in that time frame. In Buckhead’s Zone 2, homicides have been cut in half from the first six weeks of 2021, although the data showed an increase in rape, shoplifting and theft from vehicles.

White said this was a problem.

“We believe that this delay in allowing our vote will put lives, property, businesses, commerce and the already vastly diminished quality of life in Buckhead at severe risk,” he said.

In an interview Wednesday with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dickens outlined plans for hiring 250 more police officers this year as well as increasing street lights in the city and putting more lighting and cameras in entertainment districts.

“I’m still very much focused on all of the needs of the city, and Buckhead,” Dickens told the AJC. “I want to do so much for this city in the first year that this isn’t even a discussion when the general assembly gets back in next year.”

Related:

• Buckhead City Won't Make 2022 Legislative Agenda: House Speaker
• Buckhead Cityhood Opponent GA Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan Speaks Out
• New Buckhead Poll Shows Majority Against Secession, Cityhood
• Buckhead Cityhood Bill Prefiled For GA Senate 2022 Session
• Buckhead Cityhood Could Cost Atlanta Schools $332 Million: Report
• Why Buckhead's State Senators Oppose Cityhood: Patch Q&A
• Buckhead City A Viable Proposition, Feasibility Study Says