Approximately 150 people, most but not all in support, attended a Sunday meeting about forming a new city from portions of northern and western Augusta-Richmond County.
“I think it all boils down to none of us are satisfied with our local government,” said the effort’s leader, attorney Wright McLeod, the former Republican candidate for the Georgia House and U.S. Congress.
“We all know there has been a tremendous movement to North Augusta and to Columbia County,” said McLeod, who lives in the Forest Hills community of Augusta. “We know about the current feeling out there that we are less safe.”
The process could advance as soon as January, with an area legislator’s commitment to file a bill in support, McLeod said. But the new city’s exact boundaries are undetermined, and multiple steps must be followed to incorporate the new city, known for now as the Village of Summerville.
McLeod presented a map he said he designed based on known geographical boundaries. It included the Summerville Historic District as well as Forest Hills and everything further north – Country Club Hills, Sand Hills, National Hills, the Augusta National Golf Club – to the Columbia County line and the state line at the Savannah River.
The area’s population is approximately 43,000, approaching the 50,000 who lived within the old Augusta city limits prior to consolidation with Richmond County in 1995, but the map is subject to change, McLeod said.
“That was me creating boundaries based on geographical resources just to get the conversation started,” McLeod said.
Once the boundaries are set and a bill is filed, the next step is to ask a state entity such as the Carl Vinson Institute of Government to perform a feasibility study, he said. The bill must undergo a two-session review process and secure the governor’s signature, and only then will residents of the new city be asked to vote to incorporate. The process will take no less than two years, McLeod said.
Under state law the new city must provide at least three of 10 services that must be selected. The services to choose from include law enforcement, fire protection, trash pickup, road maintenance, wastewater treatment, water, other utilities, stormwater, codes enforcement, recreation and planning and zoning.
The new government won’t displace the Augusta Commission’s representation of the areas or impact the Richmond County school system and its tax collections, he said. But the new city will benefit from the sales taxes and franchise fees it will receive, based on population, from Augusta-Richmond County, he said.
Residents who attended the meeting mostly voiced support but a few, including mayor-elect Garnett Johnson, questioned the plan. Johnson campaigned on improving local government by reducing waste and increasing efficiency.
“You deserve better representation and accountability for your tax dollars,” Johnson said. “I’m going to fight every day to make sure you remain a united Augusta, and make sure that we lower your taxes, we improve your schools, we provide better safety and security for this community, we’re cleaning it up.
“If we can’t provide the better accountability, I’ll be the first to stand on your side,” he said.
Former U.S. attorney Ed Tarver asked if McLeod had any data to show the benefits Georgia local governments have seen from new cities incorporating. Seventeen, mainly in metro Atlanta, have formed since 2005.
“The point of tonight is to begin a discussion,” and “see where the data takes us,” McLeod said.
Phillip Christman, who worked with McLeod on the proposal, said his family’s experience living near Sandy Springs, which incorporated in 2005, until five years ago was enlightening.
“It’s incredible, the difference over the last 15 years, almost immediately how the roads improved, the parks and services,” Christman said. “It’s more efficiently-run and it’s closer to the community and the values of the people that live there and what they want.”
