UGA Study: Proposed City of Lakeside Financially Sound

Updated, 11:53 a.m. Thursday:

The Lakeside City Alliance, in a Thursday morning press conference, released the long-awaited UGA study which found that a proposed city of Lakeside would be "financially sound and that the revenues would exceed the cost of city services -- all without a property tax increase."

Meeting the press at the state Capitol, LCA released the study conducted by UGA's Carl Vinson Institute of Government. The study found that the proposed city of 63,000 people would "generate approximately $35.8 million in yearly revenue. Meanwhile, providing city services, including police, parks, public works, zoning and code enforcement, among other basic services, would cost about $29.9 million annually."

“We are thrilled that our community generates the revenue necessary to govern itself,” said Mary Kay Woodworth, chair of the Lakeside City Alliance. “After more than 70 community meetings discussing potential incorporation, it’s now time to move forward and request that the General Assembly allow us a vote to become Georgia’s newest city.”

Highlights from the study were provided reporters in a news release. Among its highlights:

"The CVI study compared a new city of Lakeside with Smyrna and Dunwoody, cities of somewhat similar size and population. Highlights of the study include:

• A new city of Lakeside would be likely employ approximately 81 police officers, significantly more than in Dunwoody (46) and almost as many in Smyrna (91). The average number of officers per resident of the new city would be 785 compared to 1,006 residents per officer in Dunwoody and 563 residents per officer in Smyrna.
• A city of Lakeside would have 190 acres of existing parkland with 121 acres at Henderson Park, 29 acres at WD Thompson Park, 24 acres at Pleasantdale Park, 11 acres at the Mary Scott Nature Park and 6 acres at Frazier-Rowe.
• Under public works, a city of Lakeside could provide road and bridge repair and maintenance and would have an estimated $1.3 million to spend annually. It would have 213 lane miles in its city compared to 273 lane miles in Dunwoody and 450 lane miles in Smyrna.
• The new city would have neither a jail nor courthouse facilities, as it would continue to rely on DeKalb County for those services and others, including water and sewer and, sanitation and trash pickup
• Assessed property value in the proposed city boundaries totals approximately $2.5 billion."

“These are very strong numbers, and we believe the CVI report will help the Legislature move our city forward,” said LCA's co-chair Kevin Levitas. “We have heard from our friends and neighbors in this community that they want better police protection, their own parks, better roads and local control. This report shows it can really happen.”

Studies will be completed in early December at the request of the City of Briarcliff Initiative and Tucker 2014 for their cityhood plans.

To view the CVI study of Lakeside go to http://www.vinsoninstitute.org/fsend/1384985461gkpsx/lakeside-final _112013.pdf

Patch will be following up on the press conference with further reports.

EARLIER STORY

The Lakeside City Alliance announced this morning that efforts to form a new city will continue after a study confirmed the feasibility of their plan.

At a press conference at the State Capitol, LCA leaders announced that the study found the proposed city of Lakeside financially sound and that revenues would exceed the cost of city services.

The study was conducted by the University of Georgia's Carl Vinson Institute of Government.

Patch will update this story momentarily with more details from the press conference.