Voter rejection of a proposed city of Skidaway Island near Savannah last week may put a damper on legislative approval of new cities, writes Charlie Harper, the Marietta-based publisher of GeorgiaPol.com and executive director of PolicyBEST, which focuses on policy issues of business climate, education, science and medicine, and transportation.
Skidaway Island, a 6,300-acre island surrounded by tidal marshes and the Intracoastal Waterway, is in unincorporated Chatham County. About 63 percent of voters opposed the proposed new city. Of the island's more than 8,000 voters, 73 percent cast ballots.
"The loss has also given statewide leaders in Atlanta a reason to re-evaluate the rush to cityhood in many cases. We need to set a higher bar before pitting neighbor against neighbor. There needs to be a clear and consistent reason why we should," Harper writes.
"On a statewide basis, it is now time to openly question if the industry of cityhood is, and should be, losing steam," he says. "Is the current list of areas exploring the option of incorporation really the result of a groundswell of public support, or have we now created an industry with the right connections and capital that is planting seeds of cityhood in the hopes that public support will then sprout?"
