Accomplishments

I am proud of council’s decision to move forward on the development of a new city center. Construction/demolition is slated to begin at the end of September on the city owned properties adjacent to the Doraville MARTA station.

We will be demolishing our old city services buildings and creating a new city center packed with a new city hall, new library, a large event lawn and park, multiple restaurants and additional mixed-used buildings with apartments, retail, and more.

Renderings of the proposed city hall can be found on the city’s website if you are interested in seeing the current designs. I’m also proud of the city residents for voting to fund the new library via a general obligation bond. The council also recreated a Special Service District (SSD) to help fund this development and future reconnection projects, which will tie all parts of Doraville to our downtown with multi-modal paths.

This development, along with projects in the immediately surrounding blocks will revitalize Doraville’s downtown and provide new homes, stores, restaurants, event spaces, and more for our community.

The current council worked hand in hand with the owners of the old GM plant to build a cutting edge movie studio and mixed use development where the abandoned factory once stood.

In only a few short years, the site went from derelict to bustling, with dozens of active and planned film shoots occurring in the city. Phase Two of their development should be starting shortly and will bring new housing, retail, office, and hotel stock to our city.

If you haven’t been there, take some time to go walk the site and take in all that has been built in only a few short years, including an amazing 5 acre public park.

Many road projects, both large and small, have been completed in the past six years. Miles of roads have been repaved and sidewalks have been repaired and improved throughout the city.

New sidewalks, many completed in-house by our own Doraville Public Works Department, have improved saftey and access for our residents. Large scale projects like the New Peachtree Road rework have helped establish Doraville as a city willing to invest in our infrastructure, signaling to developers that we are ready for targeted growth and development.

Council also created an Special Service District (SSD) around the old tank farm, helping fund the complete repaving of miles of roads without any cost to the city residents or businesses that aren’t direclty tied to the tank farm properties. This alone saved the city approximately $8M in funds which can now be spent on other projects.

With the recent completion of the Lumen and Camino apartment buildings, Doraville has new, market-rate housing stock for our residents. A new townhome community is currently under construction alongside Peachtree Boulevard (just outside the perimeter) and another is under construction behind the Porsche dealership (just inside the perimeter).

Additional new housing projects are in the planning stages as well. New housing stock helps drive growth, builds our tax base, and provides thousands of new customers for our stores and restaurants.

Myself and the rest of council have worked hard to develop positive relationships with our neighboring cities. We work closely with the privately managed Chamblee Doraville Community Improvement District (CID), which focuses on community improvement within our city and Chamblee.

These relationships help building better connections, both literaly and figuratively, between our cities. Safer sidewalks, improved community policing, and freshly paved roads all add up to a safer and healthier environment for our residents and visitors.

When I took office in 2019, our city millage rate was 10 (at the cap allowed by our charter). We have since reduced it to 9 while also increasing our homestead exemption to 2.5+ mills.

This is an effective city tax rate of 6.5% for home owners, a reduction of 35% over what it was six years ago. We also have our 100% senior exemption in place for residents over 70 years of age. This greatly helps residents age in place.

Council has approved and overseen the remodeling of all of our city parks in the past six years. Whether minor updates and improvements to Chickopee and Autumn parks or larger projects of tennis court and soccer field replacements at Brook and Halpern parks, we have focused on spending tax dollars effectively for the residents.

We are currently working on a master plan for our largest park, Honeysuckle, which will likely become the new home of our city’s swim center, as well as a large scale reworking of the park’s other facilities.

Doraville is finally seeing the DeKalb County School System focus on our city. Through steady pressure from council and residents, a new elementary school, Doraville United, was opened to students in March of 2021.

A new middle/high school is currently under construction at the site of the old Cary Reynolds Elementary / Sequoyah Woods Middle school. Slated to open in 2027/2028, these schools will provide a cutting edge home for our city’s children.

A successful city-led annexation occurred last year, bringing a large piece of DeKalb county into the city of Doraville. We are working hard to identify areas neglected in the newly incorporated part of the city with a focus on road repairs, sidewalk installation, stormwater management repairs, and increased code enforcement.