DeKalb Historic Preservation Commission lacks quorum

DeKalb County property owners seeking Certificates of Appropriateness will have to wait longer because members of the county's Historic Preservation Commission failed to attend an on-line meeting.

A scheduled June 20 meeting of the HPC did not occur due to a lack of a quorum, according to the DeKalb County Department of Planning & Sustainability.

The commission was set to consider requests involving these properties:

 - 1538 Emory Road

 - 483 Princeton Way

 - 1669 N. Decatur Road

 - 1352 Emory Road

 - 870 Clifton Road

 - 1895 Edinburgh Terrace

 - 1853 North Decatur Road (to demolish and replace a house)

The online (Zoom) meeting has now been rescheduled for July 6 at 6 p.m.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the HPC is on July 17.

DeKalb County Ethics Board cancels June meeting

The DeKalb County Ethics board has, with no explanation, cancelled its monthly meeting for June.

The meeting had been scheduled for June 15. Five members resigned from the board earlier this year. New panel members are being sought.

In February, the Board of Ethics issued a public reprimand of Vaughn Irons, whose for-profit "community development firm" received money from a contract with DeKalb County after it paid former Commissioner Stan Watson as a consultant from 2012 to 2014.

Irons served as the Chairman of the DeKalb County Development Authority while serving as the founder and CEO of the for-profit, private corporation, APD Solutions, LLC. The board's action called for an indefinite suspension of Irons or any business he owns from contracting with DeKalb County.

The board's next scheduled meeting is on July 20.

Property taxes set to increase countywide

School system and municipalities are proposing to increase property taxe rates this year. Clarkston, Pine Lake and Lithonia are all proposing increases of more than 20 percent.

The DeKalb County School District has tentatively adopted a millage rate that will require a 13.44 percent increase in property taxes. The millage rate would rise from last year's 20.345 mills to 23.08 mills. Taxes would increase $341.75 for a home appraised at $350,000 and $546.80 for a non-homestead property valued at $550,000.

That increase would be in addition to other millage rate increases proposed in DeKalb County, listed here in descending order of the increase: 

Tucker: 191.33 percent

Clarkston: 41.21 percent

Pine Lake: 26.70 percent

Lithonia: 23.02 percent

Doraville: 11.98 percent

Avondale Estates: 10.42 percent

Decatur City Schools: 9.49 percent

Decatur: 9.11 percent

Brookhaven 8.21 percent

Chamblee: 6.84 percent

Dunwoody has announced its millage rate will remain the same as 2022.

Commissioner Larry Johnson to host town hall meeting June 13

A presentation on DeKalb County's plans for a new Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax will be part of a town hall meeting hosted by DeKalb County Commissioner Larry Johnson at the Rainbow Park Amphitheater on Tuesday, June 13 at 6:30 p.m.

The theme of the meeting is "Bringing Hope In A Big Way." There will also be presentations from MARTA and the county's Department of Planning & Sustainability. A movie will follow.

The 1,000-seat, $1.7 million amphitheater, located at 3181 Rainbow Park in Decatur, opened last year. It was funded from 2001 and 2006 park bond issues.

$15 million property tax break for developer of Brookhaven apartment-office-hotel complex

DeKalb County's development authority voted Thursday to give a $15 million tax break to the developers of a mixed-use project on Briarcliff Road near North Druid Hills Rd. 

The property tax abatement was part of Decide DeKalb's actions in favor of a $180 million bond issue to fund the Manor Druid Hills Project near Children's Hospital of Atlanta. The development is set to include 381 apartments, 55,000 square feet of office space and a 140-room hotel.

The 5-1 vote for approval came over the objections of the Chair of DeKalb County's Board of Education and several DeKalb County commissioners, who said there was no need to subsidize the private developer of the Brookhaven project, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Decide DeKalb claims the project, being developed by the Miami-based Related Group, will create 270 new full-time jobs, including eight related to the multi-family residential housing.

Expensive logo and name for "Memorial Drive East"

An Atlanta architectural firm paid by DeKalb County to develop a "brand" for Memorial Drive has proposed a stylized letter "M" and "Memorial Drive East" as the logo and slogan for a five-mile section of the roadway outside of Interstate 285. 

Houser Walker Architecture LLC, which was awarded $104,000 last year to create identity graphics and branding for the corridor, presented its conclusions during a Thursday evening online meeting organized by the DeKalb County Department of Planning & Sustainability.

After the presentation, Commissioner Steve Bradshaw acknowledged that the proposed logo and signage would not change the perception of Memorial Drive, the primary goal of a county study a few years ago.

"In and of themselves they won't," he said. "If you want me to be candid about it, a sign by itself won't do that."