Aggrieved Loch Lomond residents have filed suit against the city of South Fulton, asking that they remain part of unincorporated Fulton County after a state appeals court denied their request to be annexed into Atlanta.
The residents also asked that a 2017 election for city council be overturned because the number of registered voters in Loch Lomond is larger than the margin of victory in that race.
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The suit was filed Monday in Fulton County Superior Court. Robbie Ashe, an attorney representing the residents, said the lawsuit was part of a broader fight between Atlanta and the city of South Fulton. The two cities are also arguing about who will control land in the Fulton Industrial District, the last part of Fulton County that isn't in a city.
“There’s a strong level of we-really-don’t-want-to-be-in-the-city-of-South-Fulton, and this is responsive to that,” Ashe said of the suit. “These folks want the opportunity to choose for themselves.”
Several Loch Lomond residents sued to overturn the Atlanta annexation, and were successful in October. A request from Atlanta to reconsider that ruling was denied and as of Dec. 10, the area became part of South Fulton. But Ashe said the courts didn't consider questions about whether voters were disenfranchised by that decision, and that is the basis of the new lawsuit.
A spokesperson for the city of South Fulton did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Loch Lomond is a once close-knit neighborhood of about 200 homes that was built in the mid-1960s on the edge of Atlanta’s expansion.
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