An effort to incorporate the “City of Summerville Village” advanced but suffered a two-year setback when area legislators declined to sponsor the bill.
The push got as far as organizers running a legal ad Thursday stating a bill was coming. But the legislation won’t happen during this session, said attorney Wright McLeod, the former congressional candidate spearheading the effort.
“The defeat of the Buckhead city movement and the political capital expended to try and change the Augusta-Richmond County charter forces us to push back the filing of the bill to reincorporate Summerville till next year,” McLeod said in a statement.
The bill asking voters to decide whether to give Augusta’s mayor a full-time vote had full Republican support and now goes to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature.
State Republicans looked less favorably on cityhood for Buckhead, the Atlanta neighborhood supporters again fought to break off into its own city.
The latest plan for Summerville cityhood has a much smaller footprint and has less than half the population of earlier versions. That might increase its chances of success, McLeod said.
“The most recent proposal is about 19,500 residents centered around Forest Hills, west Augusta and the older part of Summerville,” he said.
It might be what locals recall taking a drive from Summerville west on Walton Way and the neighborhoods on each side, he said.
The new map, drawn by technicians at the state Legislative and Congressional Reapportionment Office, omits Augusta National Golf Club, National Hills and the Riverwatch Parkway area, which were included in a previous version.
The proposed “City of Summerville Village” is bounded by Baker Avenue to the east, taking in the historic Academy of Richmond County. Its western boundaries are at Magnolia Drive and Jackson Road and its northern boundaries are roughly Boy Scout Road, the golf club and Broad Street.
Incorporation is a two-year legislative process, and without a bill introduced, organizers can’t take the next prescribed step of conducting feasibility and impact studies, McLeod said. They can only wait for a bill to be introduced next year.
Since the 2005 incorporation of Sandy Springs, 10 cities have formed around Atlanta, the most recent being South Fulton in 2017. McLeod said the issues raised with Buckhead don’t apply to Augusta.
“We’re not the capital. We don’t have school a school system. We don’t potentially downgrade the state’s credit rating,” he said.
Opposition in Buckhead, which like Summerville is an effort to incorporate a new city from parts of an existing one, centers around the Atlanta Public Schools system and liability for the city’s general obligation bond debt.
While about 150 people attended a December meeting in Augusta on the issue, a percentage spoke out against it, including Mayor Garnett Johnson. But Johnson, whose address would fall in the new city, encouraged cityhood supporters to do their research.
The message this week from Rep. Mark Newton, R-Augusta, was “now wasn’t the time,” McLeod said. Newton did not return a message seeking comment.
One nearby government sees potential advantages to becoming a city. Columbia County, most of which is unincorporated, is considering becoming a city. The move could give the county access to lucrative franchise fees and the ability to block additional annexations by Grovetown and Harlem.
Newfound cities are required to provide at least three of 10 specified government services.
“You would envision services that would include a police force, planning and zoning, a very small recreation department and perhaps a municipal court,” McLeod said. “Everything else would still be provided by the county.”
Revenue sources discussed include franchise fees and sales taxes the new city would be owed based on population.
