City of Stone Mountain abandons annexation plans

The City of Stone Mountain has abandoned any plans to expand its city limits beyond current lines, the city has disclosed.

"The City of Stone Mountain has no plans to propose any annexation," according to a one-line announcement in the city's monthly newsletter.

"We are not promoting, requesting, presenting or proposing any annexation," Stone Mountain City Manager ChaQuias Miller-Thornton told City Council members at their regular meeting this month.

Beginning in 2016, Stone Mountain floated a proposal to almost double the geographical size of the city and increase its population by a little more than 50 percent (from 6,109 to 9,235).  The city's analysis of that annexation proposal (a PDF file) can be found at http://bit.ly/2m02HpO .

Map of abandoned 2016 annexation plan

Nickel Works Consulting was hired by the city in 2017 to do surveys and outreach in conjunction with the annexation proposal. However, the city's annexation task force committee has not met since February 2018.

In 2000, Stone Mountain Mayor Chuck Burris proposed expanding the city limits to all locations that have a Stone Mountain postal address. The proposal, which failed to advance, would have increased the city's population to more than 20,000.