Stonecrest: Building A World-Class City

Building A World-Class City Stonecrest forges ahead

S

By Adrion Bell

ince taking office on May 1, 2017, Mayor Jason Lary has led the efforts to put the new city of Stonecrest on the map. He worked to secure a location for the first city hall, hosting a grand opening on Nov. 11, 2017. Staff members moved from a temporary office in Tucker and city meetings were moved from the Stonecrest Library to the city’s beautiful new offices located at 3120 Stonecrest Blvd.

Shortly after securing a city hall, Mayor Lary made good on his promise to get a Stonecrest mailing address for its residents. In May 2018, the U.S. Postal Service added Stonecrest, GA to its list of acceptable city and state designations.

This month, the city reached yet another milestone: Crews began installing “Stonecrest City Limit” signs on its thoroughfares.

In addition to defining what the city looks like, Mayor Lary has worked tirelessly toward implementing the city’s Economic Development Department. He began efforts to lure major corporations such as Amazon, a company set to open a second, multi-billion-dollar headquarters. He crafted an idea to develop a corporate brand for Amazon by eponymously naming the 345 acres to be occupied by the retail giant. The mayor’s efforts will continue as he targets companies like Apple, Micro Center, and Costco.

Today, Mayor Lary is working with the newly-formed Stonecrest Development Authority with the intent of offering incentives that will boost the city’s economic development.

He has appointed steering committee members to protect the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area, created the City of Innovation and Excellence to foster a seamless relationship between constituents, staff, and council members, and named an education committee to foster the long-term goals of the city’s core values: Community, Commerce, and Culture working together as a world-class city.

PAGE 2 • SEPTEMBER 1, 2018 WWW.OCGNEWS.COM

Development Authority forms to incentivize development

By Adrion Bell

M

ayor Jason Lary recently appointed 10 local business owners and a city staff member to work with him on the Stonecrest Development Authority.

The group was formed to promote trade, commerce, industry, and employment opportunities while strengthening the city’s tax base. According to the Georgia Government Finance Officers Association, the new development authority can be used as a key financing source to further economic development initiatives in Stonecrest.

Initiatives and incentives to stimulate growth can be offered in a variety of ways. Cities may use infrastructure improvements, business license fee reductions, and property tax incentives to lure commercial and industrial growth.

The development authority can also issue

bonds-for-title which are used to provide tax incentives for developers, especially those willing to bring jobs to the city. The mayor recently joined forces with Doug Stoner to aid in the building, training, and management of the Development Authority.

Stoner, a former state representative and senator, serves as the chairman of the South Cobb Redevelopment Authority. He was the managing director of the Development Authority of DeKalb, a consultant for The Atlanta Beltline Partnership, Inc., and chairman of the Cobb Transit Advisory Board.

The Stonecrest Development Authority consists of Dr. Cynthia Elliot, Belinda Hull, Antonio Render, Jim Kelly, Samuel Stuckey, Leighton Hull, Bill Allen, and exofficio members Mayor Jason Lary, Sabrina Wright, Joe Coleman, and Julius Lee.

Arabia Mountain Steering committee works to preserve beauty, functionality

T

By Adrion Bell

he Arabia Mountain Overlay Steering Committee was formed to make recommendations to the Stonecrest City Council to promote high quality and compatible developments immediately adjacent to and surrounding the Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve. The 14-member committee meets twice a month and discusses ways to maintain the serenity, scenery and functionality of the area while still allowing residential and commercial growth. The overlay district is in its proposal stages and if approved by council, will cover a moderate portion of the city’s central and southeast territory.

The committee is comprised of co-chairs Mera Cardenas and Councilman George Turner and Lori Brown, Tammy Smith, Kelly Jordan, Bernard Knight, Dave Marcus, Cheryl Mathis, Jetha Wagner, Eric Hubbard, City Manager Michael Harris, the city’s Community Development Director Nicole Dozier, and Councilmembers Jimmy Clanton and Diane Adoma.

Mayor visits Guyana to aid, educate and prepare for prosperity

By Adrion Bell

M

ayor Jason Lary recently visited Guyana to strengthen the business relationship between Stonecrest and the South American country that recently discovered oil. The mayor consulted with the Guyanese government to teach them about the city’s contract-for-services model so that they can have best in class employees and services, especially in anticipation of their inevitable growth.

Exxon-Mobil publicly announced a commercially viable oil find that will produce an estimated 100,000 barrels per day in the coming years. Mayor Lary and Guyanese officials agreed that as the region prospers, so will foreign entrepreneurship along with an increase in import and export opportunities. Yet prior to these opportunities, the country remains poverty- stricken, and the mayor has vowed to help.

“It is our moral and Christian duty to help those who are less fortunate than we are, even if they are miles away,” the mayor said. The mayor and the

city’s community affairs manager, Al Franklin, visited Georgetown and New Amsterdam. The mayor presented keys to the city and received one in return from Georgetown. The mayor will hold strategic planning sessions in the coming weeks to identify ways that Stonecrest can aid in one of Guyana’s main hospitals. “The rooms and beds are substandard when you compare them to our hospitals,” Mayor Lary said.

“We will find a way to help.”

Not all areas of the country are poverty-stricken. The United States exported approximately $381.5 million in products to Guyana recently, representing nearly 27% of Guyana’s total imports. The demand remains strong for agricultural and capital machinery, telecommunications equipment, computers, farm chemicals like pesticides and fertilizers, and consumer food products. The mayor said he intends to lay the foundation for Stonecrest’s new and future businesses to benefit from the available import and export opportunities available in Guyana.

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/OCGNEWS

SEPTEMBER 1, 2018 • PAGE 3

City’s Education Committee plans help boost students’ college preparation, career readiness

By Adrion Bell

T

he Stonecrest Education Committee is comprised of current and former educators and a member of the DeKalb School Board. The committee meets once a month to implement strategies that will boost Stonecrest students’ test scores, improve high school learning and provide scholarships.

Recently, committee members met to discuss the Eighth Grade Promotion Policy. According to the committee’s research, Salem and Lithonia Middle schools have a larger than desired number of eighth-grade students who are promoted to the ninth grade despite their failures on the Georgia Milestones Tests. Education Committee members plan to work with the two schools to implement strategies successfully used by other Georgia school districts. Lee County School System in Leesburg, Georgia, has two programs that would benefit Stonecrest students, according to Committee Chair, Dr. Barbara Lee. The committee is researching the implementation of a Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership (LEAP) and an 8.5 Program with hopes of building our eighth-grade students’ skill levels so that they can achieve and compete at their next education level.

Mentoring and scholarship opportunities have been another agenda item for the Education Committee. Committee member

Nicole Prather will soon be releasing information on scholarships that her sorority, Phi Delta Kappa, offers to students entering college with an education major. Dr. Lisa Bratton and Lee are also planning to conduct college preparation and readiness sessions that will contain a Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and an American College Testing (ACT) component.

Math and literacy tutorials will also take place as desired, according to Lee. “Our goal is to help our students acquire the skills they need in reading

Congratulations to our friends at the City of Stonecrest on your 1st anniversary

&

www.colemantalley.com

www.fincherdenmark.com

Connect with us 770.698.9556

770.478.9950

and mathematics to be successful in school and in life,” she said.

The Education Committee spent most of their meeting on August 21, 2018, discussing the city’s overcrowded elementary schools. This topic was also discussed with DeKalb School Superintendent Dr. R. Stephen Green in an August 2017 meeting, according to Lee. According to recent data revealed in Green’s Status of the District meeting, several elementary schools in Stonecrest have mobile units with one having as many as

eight mobile units. “This is a problem with the rapid growth in the area.

We do not wish to repeat the “trailer” parks problem at our schools that we experienced in this area for nineteen years,” Lee said. Committee members are encouraging parents to be proactive about this issue.

Committee members also asked Green to consider placing a new Early Learning Academy in Stonecrest.

This type of academy targets 3-yearold students in an effort to awaken their love for learning at an early age.

The first such academy was started this year in DeKalb at the Terry Mill Elementary School. The academy is free and will help the city’s elementary school test scores. “The Education Committee is one of the key pieces of the Stonecrest economic development puzzle,” Mayor Lary said. “When companies consider moving to an area, the schools are one of the first things their executives investigate. We must support high academic achievement for our students’ future and for the future of our city,” the mayor added.

The Education Committee members are Dr. Barbara Lee, Chairwoman, Tiarra Moore, Pamela Childs, Dr. Lisa Bratton, Sandra Harris, Andrew Wells, Nicole Prather, Johnny Waits, and DeKalb School Board Member Vickie Turner.

PAGE 4 • SEPTEMBER 1, 2018 WWW.OCGNEWS.COM

City shares strategies for smart growth

T

he mayor and city council initially adopted several ordinances from DeKalb County so that laws would be in place to govern zoning and code enforcement.

Recently, the city began tightening the reigns, aligning the business requirements with the requests of its citizens.

For example, a portion of the 21,600-square-foot facility on Covington Highway, will house a liquor store that will move from across the street at 6670 Covington Highway in unincorporated DeKalb County. There is a silver lining in this development according to the city’s mayor.

“We were able to require that the developer of this retail establishment meet certain security requirements, such as mounted exterior cameras,” the mayor said. “We also asked them to build a first-class building with architectural accents that include stucco, brick, terra cotta, natural stone, and an 8-foot privacy fence to separate them from the neighboring facility. We even required that their trash is hidden behind a privacy fence,” he added.

“We are going to control our destiny,” Lary said.

Since the first city council meeting, legislation has been passed to reflect the desires of the residents. For example, a city ordinance passed in 2017 that prohibits alcohol sales in nude clubs. The clubs also must be in the city’s industrial area.

By Adrion Bell

“These limitations discourage nude clubs in Stonecrest which is what the residents desire,” Lary said.

The mayor, council and planning commission are working out regulations to govern shortterm vacation rentals commonly advertised on Airbnb websites. After a few rentals were used for clubtype parties, city staff began drafting more stringent requirements. The

proposed regulations are strict and will require owners to limit the number of consecutive days a tenant can rent the property. The proposed regulations also limit the number of guests allowed on the premises.

City regulations have also hit the industrial area. Recently, an ordinance was approved that forced the owners of a gravel industrial, truck parking lot to treat the area to control dust and

so that its rainwater runoff would be environmentally safe. The lot must also be screened from public view with an opaque fence and a 10-foot wide evergreen landscape buffer.

Citizens are now submitting their development ideas as the staff prepares for Comprehensive Plan 2038. The required Comprehensive Plan will outline the city’s growth and development for the next 20 years.