As we begin to write the following information we want to let everyone know that we are neither for or against Stockbridge or the idea of a new city of Eagles Landing. This is an informative post. For some time now there has been a lot of back and forth about the idea of a new city of Eagles Landing being created and Stockbridge is fighting it's creation saying they will be taking part of their city to do so. Let's go back in history and talk a few facts:
1. The idea of a city being where Eagles Landing is today is nothing new. It was proposed back in the late 1960's as a city to be called Henry City.
2. Later a developer came and created the community of Eagles Landing which was far removed from the City of Stockbridge. The city limits at the time only went to the rock quarry.
3. The former mayor the late Rudy Kelley lived in Stockbridge. They wanted a home in the Windsong Plantation which they got, but in order for him to remain mayor, they had to annex part of that subdivision along with a strip of land down Rock Quarry Rd to it. Then, they decided to move into the gated part of Eagles Landing and again had a certain area annexed so he could remain mayor. It was all politics.
4. It has been mentioned that the people of Stockbridge have never paid property taxes for the city. That is not true. The people the city paid city taxes until the State dismantled their police department and the fire department was turned over to the county. They stopped city property taxes at that time.
5. The city began talking about having a police department once again, but the only way to have said department will mean they will have to have a property tax to maintain it. That is a logistical fact.
6. Stockbridge over the years has allowed developers to come to them to have subdivisions built around the area and thus they would do creative annexations to let them in the city under less than adequate means of construction and smaller lots. The recent annexation of the property on the west side of I-75 and south of Jodeco Road has been a questionable annexation.
7. According to the bills before the General Assembly, if there is a City of Eagles Landing formed they will allow Stockbridge to annex other properties and add more people to their city. There has been made mention that if they form a city of Eagles Landing that it would take over 50% of Stockbridge away and this is simply not true.
8. The people in the Eagles Landing area are the more affluent and well to do citizens who have the means to take care of themselves. Similar scenario of the small towns created north of Atlanta by the more affluent which has worked well since their creation.
9. It has been said that Stockbridge cannot stand on it's own without Eagles Landing, but that shouldn't be the case. They should not depend on one community to sustain their city. Stockbridge was a city for a very long time before Eagles Landing was ever built. They can do just fine if they do the right things in the city.
10. According to the statistics, if there is a new city of Eagles Landing created it will be populated with mostly minorities just like the city of Stockbridge. So, the issue of race should be a moot point. But of course like everything else this day and time it has raced it's ugly head in this matter as well.
11. Henry County continues to grow and is becoming a hot bed for many different things and another city being added will not make much difference. There are infrastructure issues that Stockbridge and Henry County need to face and do something about now. The problem is that when most of the infrastructure projects are due to be built or completed they are obsolete. Henry County has been a county growing so rapidly, yet are playing catch-up on all the infrastructure issues. And currently they are failing. And putting buses on two lane roads are not going to help matters.
12. If they do create a city of Eagles Landing, hopefully the two cities can learn to be friendly to one another. They don't need to be bitter rivalries because we have already seen too much of that.
In conclusion, there have been a lot of mistakes made along the way in this process that need to be fixed. There has been a lot bad press and a lot of misinformation flowing about the whole matter. But when people want to be deannexed and move into another town that means they should have that right with a vote of those involved in that section. And real politicians learn to compromise to do what is best for the citizens and not what they want for themselves.
The Staff
