Decatur, GA — The Decatur City Commission meets tonight at 6:30 p.m. for a work session via Zoom to discuss a waste characterization study. The City Commission will also meet at 7:30 p.m. via Zoom for its regular meeting and will vote on a resolution in support of the Decatur Land Trust becoming an independent non-profit corporation.

To access the meetings, follow these instructions: 

Attendees must register for the meetings in advance, especially to participate during the public comment or requests and petitions portions of the meeting. To register, click here.

The meetings will also be livestreamed on the city’s website.

The agendas for tonight’s meetings can be found here.

The Decatur Land Trust presented plans to the City Commission at the May 17 work session. The Land Trust was created a couple of years ago and five board members were appointed by Legacy Decatur in 2019.

Legacy Decatur is the board that oversees Legacy Park, the former United Methodist Children’s Home property on South Columbia Drive. The Land Trust has always planned to become a stand-alone nonprofit and it is ready to move forward with the process.

“I see this as being actually a bit more autonomous than perhaps what we see with the Legacy project but still I think the ability to compete for grants and external funding is an important piece to me by having that separation,” Mayor Patti Garrett said at the May 17 meeting.

Through the land trust, the city will be able to acquire property through a purchase or donation and facilitate the development or preservation of affordable housing. The entity would also maintain the ground lease for the affordable units in order to keep the affordable over time as the units are re-sold and rented, Decaturish previously reported.

Legacy Decatur will make the final decision on the Decatur Land Trust becoming an independent non-profit corporation. The board is expected to vote on the measure in July.

The City Commission will additionally vote on the revised budget and change order for the Legacy Park dining hall. The revised budget amount is $100,000 and the change order is in the amount of $18,074 for renovations to the dining hall.

On March 10, a budget of $85,000 was approved and a contract in the amount of about $79,000 was awarded to Tower Interior Construction for the project. If the change order is approved, the contract amount would increase to about $97,000, according to the agenda packet.

The initial phase of the project included testing for lead-based paint and extensive contamination was found. The change order is requested to upgrade the flooring from carpet to vinyl plank and get rid of the lead-based paint, according to the agenda packet.