page_title: Fulton County, Georgia
section_title: Municipalization
hierarchical_section_title: Fulton County, Georgia / Government / Municipalization
caption_attribution_description: Pill Hill, Perimeter Center, Atlanta
context_page_description: Fulton County is a county in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2019 estimates, the population was 1,063,937, making it the state's most-populous county and its only one with over 1 million inhabitants. Its county seat is Atlanta, the state capital. Approximately 90% of the City of Atlanta is within Fulton County; the other 10% lies within DeKalb County.
  Fulton County is part of the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area.
context_section_description: Since the 1970s, residents of Sandy Springs had waged a long-running battle to incorporate their community as a city, which would make it independent of county council control. They were repeatedly blocked in the state legislature by Atlanta Democrats, but when control of state government switched to suburban Republicans after the 2002 and 2004 elections, the movement to charter the city picked up steam.
  The General Assembly approved creation of the city in 2005, and for this case, it suspended an existing state law that prohibited new cities (the only type of municipality in the state) from being within three miles (4.8 km) of an existing one.  The citizens of Sandy Springs voted 94% in favor of ratifying the city charter in a referendum held on June 21, 2005.  The new city was officially incorporated later that year at midnight on December 1.
  Creation of Sandy Springs was a catalyst for municipalization of the entire county, in which local groups would attempt to incorporate every area into a city.  Such a result would essentially eliminate the county's home rule powers (granted statewide by a constitutional amendment to the Georgia State Constitution in the 1960s) to act as a municipality in unincorporated areas, and return it to being entirely the local extension of state government.
  In 2006, the General Assembly approved creation of two new cities, Milton and Johns Creek, which completed municipalization of North Fulton.  The charters of these two new cities were ratified overwhelmingly in a referendum held July 18, 2006.
  Voters in the Chattahoochee Hills community of southwest Fulton (west of Cascade-Palmetto Highway) voted overwhelmingly to incorporate in June 2007. The city became incorporated on December 1, 2007.
  The General Assembly approved a proposal to form a new city called South Fulton. Its proposed boundaries were to include those areas still unincorporated on July 1, 2007.  As a direct result of possibly being permanently landlocked, many of the existing cities proposed annexations, while some communities drew-up incorporation plans.
  Voters in the area defined as the proposed city of South Fulton overwhelmingly rejected cityhood in September 2007. It was the only remaining unincorporated section of the county until the residents voted in November 2016 to incorporate as the city of South Fulton, Georgia.  Prior to that vote North Fulton, which is overwhelmingly Republican, and members of the state legislature, had discussed forcing South Fulton residents to incorporate as a city in order to force Fulton County out of the municipal services business.
caption: Pill Hill, Sandy Springs
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