DeKalb County Commission approves deannexation of land claimed by Tucker
The location of the affordable housing complex. Image obtained via Google Maps
This story has been updated.
Tucker, GA —The city of Tucker in 2020 sued the city of Clarkston, the Housing Authority of DeKalb County and a developer over a plan to build an affordable apartment complex along 4692 East Ponce de Leon Avenue.
The property in question is partially in the city of Tucker and couldn’t legally have been annexed by the city of Clarkston back in 2018.
On Tuesday, Jan. 25, the DeKalb County Commission approved a deannexation of the disputed property that should settle the lawsuit.
“Today the commissioners took action to clean up a boundary dispute between the City of Tucker and City of Clarkston, stemming from errors made by the City of Tucker when the legislative authors crafted the new city’s jurisdictional limits,” DeKalb County Commissioner and former Clarkston Mayor Ted Terry said. “We hope that the resolution of this matter will end the lawsuit and end the unnecessary waste of city and county taxpayer funds on this matter. Moving forward I hope that our DeKalb municipalities and the County Governing Authority will first seek mediation and conversation before seeking litigation. Our shared constituents and stakeholders elected us to communicate with each other, and work together. Legal action should always be the last resort, not the opening salvo.”
When asked for a comment, Tucker city spokesperson Matt Holmes said, “As this vote involves a pending legal matter, the City of Tucker has no comment at this time.”
Tucker had tried to fight the deannexation.
Mark Ford, an attorney hired by the city of Tucker, previously said the ordinance to deannex the property is not legal because it never belonged to Clarkston in the first place.
Clarkston accused Tucker of having an ulterior motive in fighting the deannexation: blocking an affordable housing project on its border along East Ponce de Leon Avenue.
Previously, Holmes accused “others” of “trying to create an alternative narrative to bolster their case.”
“We want to be clear, this has always been about the illegal annexation of property within the City of Tucker,” Holmes said.
Writer Logan C. Ritchie contributed to this story.
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