Eddie Mathis
City of Mountain Park - Council Candidate
City Charter
The city charter dissolution is a hot-button issue that I believe should be answered by a majority vote of citizens. For me, this question goes hand in hand with the question of Public Safety. If we can negotiate a reasonable long-term contract with the City of Roswell, then I favor keeping the charter. If Roswell is unwilling to negotiate a rate much lower than they are demanding now, I favor aggressively pursuing the dissolution of the city charter. However, we must decide this as a community only after thoroughly examining the consequences of dissolving the city charter and the costs of keeping it.
As a chartered city, Mountain Park is unique. We are smaller than most homeowners associations (HOAs), but our similarity to a homeowners association ends with size. When you look at an HOA, you will see homes of a standardized size and value and homeowners with similar net worths. HOAs have economic cohesiveness. Mountain Park does not have economic cohesiveness because we have homes with values ranging from $150,000 to $750,000. We have homeowners, rental property owners, and renters. We have professionals in the prime of their careers, blue-collar workers just starting, and retirees struggling on fixed incomes. Because of this economic disparity, if the citizens of Mountain Park decide to dissolve the city charter, it would be impossible to form a Mountain Park Homeowners Association.
Here are some of the questions that need answers?
1. Will Roswell be forced to annex Mountain Park? We know that Roswell does not want to annex Mountain Park. The reason for that is simple math. The tax base in Mountain Park will not support the cost of infrastructure improvements required to bring streets, right-of-ways, and stormwater drainage on a par with the rest of Roswell. But even though Roswell does not want us, the only other alternative is for Fulton County to provide Mountain Park with city-level services. Fulton County is not interested in providing municipal services to a small unincorporated pocket of citizens in remote Mountain Park. Fulton County will appeal to the State Legislature to force Roswell to Annex Mountain Park. It will not be easy, and it will not be quick, but I believe the State Legislature will eventually force Roswell to annex Mountain Park.
2. What are the positives if Roswell annexes Mountain Park? There are two immediate positives: our property taxes will be reduced by about 50%, and we will have competent public safety services. In addition, we will have access to the professional services of other city departments.
3. Will a Roswell annexation change the character of Mountain Park? The simple answer is no. Here is why. First, Roswell will not want to spend the money required to change the nature of Mountain Park. Here we are talking about wider streets, curbs, stormwater drainage improvements, repaving streets. Now, if there is a critical failure of infrastructure, yes, they will fix it. But even if Roswell wanted to make significant changes in Mountain Park's infrastructure, it would take them years. Without the prompting of infrastructure collapse, it will take them years to decide to make changes; then, it will take them years to complete studies, draw up plans, get competitive bids and start construction. I served on the Roswell Transportation Committee for three years. I know how they operate. Nothing happens in the City of Roswell quickly. If Roswell annexed Mountain Park on January 1, 2022, you would not see any changes for 15 to 20 years.
4. What happens to the city's assets? This question is the biggest unknown in this equation. There have been discussions about forming a non-profit entity to purchase the civic building, the pool, and the green. I see that as unlikely. There is not enough critical mass or economic cohesiveness in Mountain Park to form a viable non-profit to handle these assets. The most logical thing to do would be to create a Homeowners Association, but that will never happen.
HOA's require economic cohesiveness, which we do not have. As a chartered city, Mountain Park is unique. We are smaller than most homeowners associations (HOAs), but our similarity to a homeowners association ends with size. When you look at an HOA, you will see homes of a standardized size and value and homeowners with similar net worths. Mountain Park does not have economic cohesiveness because we have homes with values ranging from $150,000 to $750,000. We have homeowners, rental property owners, and renters. We have professionals in the prime of their careers, blue-collar workers just starting, and retirees struggling on fixed incomes. Because of this economic disparity, if the citizens of Mountain Park decide to dissolve the city charter, it would be impossible to form a viable Mountain Park Homeowners Association.
One consequence of dissolving the charter is that the City of Roswell will likely take over these assets unless we find some other creative solution.
5. Will Roswell be responsible for fixing the lakes? The simple answer is no. Roswell is not responsible for maintaining lakes in Roswell neighborhoods.
