Meeting this week on Kensington-Memorial Drive Overlay zoning

The county has scheduled a meeting Thursday night on zoning plan changes it wants to make along Covington Highway between Memorial Dr. and I-285 and in a separate area around I-285, Durham Park Rd. and Redan Rd., including the intersection of Redan and S. Indian Creek Dr.

More than two years after DeKalb County adopted two tiers of a Kensington Memorial Overlay District, the county's Department of Planning and Sustainability wants to give them new names and allow car-rental businesses along Covington Highway.

The department plans a meeting on Thursday, Feb. 6, at 6:30 p.m. at the Covington Place Shopping Center, 4100 Covington Highway, Suite 300, Decatur, GA 30032. (A Dollar Tree opened in the shopping center last summer.)

Former Sears, Sam's Club to become Stonecrest offices

The City of Stonecrest is proposing to move city offices into a former department store and an empty big-box retail space near Stonecrest Mall.

The city has filed a notice of "urban redevelopment" plans to make improvements to a former Sears department store on a 15-acre site at 8020 Mall Parkway so that it can be used as the city's Government Administration Services Building.

The Sears store at the Mall at Stonecrest opened in October 2001 and closed in December 2017. Last October, the Stonecrest City Council approved the purchase of the building for $2.1 million.

The city also wants to take the former Sam's Club at 2994 Turner Hill and turn it into a new City Hall for Stonecrest. The warehouse club store closed abruptly two years ago when Sam's Club closed 63 stores nationwide in one week.

Commissioner Cochran-Johnson hosts 2020 Voting Town Hall

There will be demonstrations on how to use DeKalb County's new voting machines at a Voting Town Hall to be hosted by Commissioner Lorraine Cochran-Johnson this coming Wednesday.

People can register to vote at the event, which takes place on Feb. 5 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Porter Sanford Performing Arts Center, 3181 Rainbow Dr., Decatur,

Representatives of the Georgia Secretary of State's office and the DeKalb Board of Registrations & Elections are expected to participate.