It had to be some kind of world record. For two reasons. Union City Planning Commission June 26 conducted a whopping 137 public hearings on the proposed rezoning and annexation of remaining unincorporated islands located within the city. Commissioners voted to recommend the measures while a near-empty chamber room heard the repeated echoes of three affected residents who opposed the plan.

At issue was the annexation of the Vickers Mill subdivision properties off Vickers Road and Ga. Highway 138. The subdivision is part of a larger unincorporated island of approximately 200 acres.

Union City announced its intention to annex the area after Fulton County requested earlier this year that South Fulton cities annex any remaining unincorporated islands within their jurisdictions.

Planning commissioners took the properties one by one, first holding a public hearing to rezone then another to annex each property. Two of the affected residents, Valerie Walker and Martha Harville, voiced opposition during the proceedings.

Hearing after hearing, Walker voiced her opposition, stating simply that “I’m against the rezoning.”

Toward the beginning of the meeting Harville had voiced her opposition to the annexations. The unincorporated island that includes Vickers Mill is situated along Hwy 138, with the city limits of Fairburn directly across the road. Harville had addressed the Fairburn City Council earlier in June to request that the subdivision be annexed in to Fairburn rather than Union city. A long list of petition signatures in her hand, Harville said she and many of her neighbors preferred to live in Fairburn than to be residents of Union City. While appreciative of her request, Fairburn council members offered no inclination that they would be willing to follow up on that request. Fairburn has a long-standing development that favors commercial and industrial ventures and only limited, up-scale residential development.

With the unanimous vote by Union City Planning Commission to recommend all the June 26 rezonings and annexations, the issue will be taken up by the city council in July.

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