Decatur City Hall

Decatur Heights residents for years have wanted city commissioners to do something about cars driving too fast on Sycamore Drive, the neighborhood’s main thoroughfare.

City Commissioners at their Monday, May 5 meeting will consider adopting speed limits for Decatur roads, including a reduced speed limit of 30 miles per hour for Sycamore Drive. The meeting will begin with a work session about the city’s zoning code rewrite to create a unified development ordinance. The work session will also include a discussion about recommended changes to the city’s tree ordinance.  The work session begins at 6 pm. The regular meeting begins at 7:30 pm. City Commission meets at City Hall, located at 509 North McDonough Street.

The current speed on Sycamore Drive 35. Decatur Heights residents wanted it to be 25. During a November City Commission meeting, Assistant City Manager David Junger told commissioners that the Georgia Department of Transportation agreed to allow a 30 mph residential speed zone on Sycamore. He said GDOT would consider revisiting the issue of a 25 mph speed limit.

The 30 mph speed limit begins at East Ponce de Leon Avenue and .12 miles north of Forkner Drive, according to documents provided with the agenda for Monday’s meeting.

Other items on the agenda for Monday:

– Commissioners will consider approving a resolution supporting the Decatur Housing Authority’s application for low-income tax credits.

– Commissioners will consider approving a $224,000 contract increase for the Beacon Municipal Center. The new contract price will be $32.5 million, if approved. Four previous change orders increased the contract from $30.4 million to $32.3 million. The most expensive item in the current change order is $91,500 for the construction of a park pavilion and $52,000 for a water-less fire protection system for city records storage rooms.

– Commissioners will consider a resolution authorizing the mayor to sign an agreement with the Georgia Department of Transportation for federal money for Phase V of the city’s downtown streetscape project. The city will receive $796,800 and will be required to provide a $199,200 match. The total project cost will be $2.3 million. “The local share will be provided by the 2007 (General Obligation) bonds and (Homestead Option Sales Tax) funds,” the memo to the city commissioners says.

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