Following her studies in economics and environmental studies at Baylor University, council member Alexis Weaver became interested in urban planning and received her Master’s from the University of Texas at Austin. Her passion for creating a sustainable community led to her bid for the Tucker City Council District 3, Post 1 seat last November.

Weaver is impressed by Tucker Summit CID’s work throughout the district and she hopes to continue engaging and supporting the CID in her new position. She feels that the industrial and commercial sectors are incredibly important when it comes to primary job creation. Sponsoring days like Tucker Manufacturing Day really highlight the district as a cornerstone in these sectors, which bring in a variety of jobs, wages and diverse people to help build a strong community.

Weaver understands that transportation also impacts the industrial industry, and she appreciates the CID’s efforts in making the corridors beautiful and attractive to commuters and business owners.

She would love to see more industry-specific events that feature Tucker as an attractive location for a diverse portfolio of businesses. While manufacturing is the primary appeal, Weaver feels that there are other opportunities to leverage in order to attract more young professionals and engage them with the community. Her goal is for Tucker to experience economic growth where businesses attract workers who want to reside in the City and for the City to be an affordable place to live and everyone thrives.

Weaver’s focus is in participatory planning, where she receives input from experts and the community and applies her knowledge and experience to help develop a resolution or plan. Having lived in Tucker for more than nine years, she intends to continue her efforts in impacting people in a positive way by combining the ecosystems of fellowship and experiential knowledge to help build a community where people want to plant their roots and grow.

LMI, has upped its game in terms of security. Not only did they successfully ward off a $4M ransomware attack last year, but they have tackled the theft issue our members have been experiencing recently.

To help protect fellow members, LMI has launched a new program, LMI TaaS (Technology as a Service) PAK, which will help small businesses utilize heat mapping, smart object counting, motion plotting, vehicle search, face search, AI, real-time event alert management and more!

Learn more about LMI’s TaaS PAK secure, flexible and convenient security solutions on their website.

Like many other metro Atlanta cities, Tucker experienced a post-World War II boom and became one of Atlanta’s suburbs. Large-scale industry and manufacturing came to Tucker in the 1960s like nowhere else around metro Atlanta, furthering the growth of the area and resulting in the construction of new neighborhoods, schools and businesses. A combination of Tucker’s builders, business owners who supplied construction materials and the banks that helped to finance Tucker’s boom was responsible for creating the Tucker we know today.

Tucker had been identified as a prime target for metro Atlanta’s industrial development by both local government and planning agencies, as well as private corporations, by the middle of the twentieth century.

With the intent of getting ahead of Atlanta’s rapid growth and suburban sprawl, the Metropolitan Planning Commission published a report that identified Tucker’s potential for growth within DeKalb County in 1951. The report, entitled “Up Ahead,’ targeted Tucker as one of several prime locations for industrial development in the 300-square mile metropolitan Atlanta area. The report describes what it identified as the high-priority Tucker district.

According to the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) in 1952, “It contains at least 1,000 acres lying between the tracks of the Seaboard Air Line and the Georgia railroads. It is served by water, sewer and electric facilities; is accessible to a nearby industrial gas line; and is well removed from both the central Atlanta districts and military targets. It occupies a plateau location protected by rolling land.”

In 1974, Royal Atlanta Development Corporation began selling business sites for the forthcoming “Atlanta-Tucker Commercial Industrial Park;’ scheduled to open the following year (Atlanta Constitution, 1974). Today, the park is known as the Royal Atlanta Business Park and is located south of the intersection of Lawrenceville Highway and Mountain Industrial Boulevard. Construction in this industrial park continued into the 2000s.

This sudden influx of businesses into the Tucker and Stone Mountain areas meant an increase in employment opportunities by the thousands.

Stay tuned for more historic retrospectives in our newsletters.

Mark your calendars for May 12, we are excited to once again sponsor Tucker Manufacturing Day at Stone Ridge Event Center!

This year, students will be attending the event to network and learn more about the businesses in our district. There will be two panels to discuss Careers in Manufacturing and Tucker Businesses of the Future, where spokespeople representing some of our largest companies like Pepsico, Briggs & Stratton, Sugar Bowl Bakery, International Paper and more will impart their knowledge and expertise on these young minds.

The event will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. and will include morning coffee and lunch. Visit the City of Tucker website for the RSVP form coming soon!

Our largest philanthropic member, Friends of Disabled Adults and Children (FODAC), collected and donated more than $40,000 worth of home medical equipment (HME), mobility equipment, bandages and cots to aid Ukrainian refugees in Poland. Rotary International requested urgent assistance to support the Lviv military hospital in Ukraine.

We are so proud to support FODAC in its continuing efforts to send equipment and supplies to aid Ukraine. Donations and volunteers to help prep and pack the crates are welcome, please contact David Carroll to find out how you can help.

We couldn’t do what we do without the hard work and support from our DeKalb County officials.

DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond is a former member of the Georgia General Assembly whose primary mission is to restore trust in county government. Most recently, Thurmond played an instrumental role in securing the Pepsico expansion in our district by working tirelessly to ensure that necessary water and sewer permitting and paperwork were in order.

District 4 Commissioner Steve Bradshaw has been in office since 2017 but has more than 20 years of business development and management experience in the private sector. Bradshaw has been a TSCID advocate since the beginning and has helped us secure funding for many of our improvement projects, including his recent commitment of $50,000 toward infrastructure improvements throughout our district.

District 1 Commissioner Robert Patrick was elected to the presiding office of the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners earlier this year after serving two years as a commissioner. In 2021, Patrick was the first commissioner to be appointed to Decide DeKalb’s Board of Directors by CEO Michael Thurmond. Thanks to Commissioner Patrick, TSCID was granted an additional $50,000 from DeKalb County for infrastructure improvements.

Super District 7 Commissioner Lorraine Cochran-Johnson is an established entrepreneur and active public servant who strongly advocates for education, economic development and public safety. Cochran-Johnson created the Annual DeKalb County Business Owner Summit to cultivate an atmosphere of community and provide resources for small business owners to grow and thrive.

TSCID is proud to sponsor and foster young students interested in STEM. After a two-year “hiatus” due to the pandemic, our FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics team, Reboot #4080 is ready to get their hands back on some tools to build more robots!

The robotics team, made up of 14-16 students from Tucker-area schools, is in need of 2,400 square feet of space to meet and build — but could work within 800-1,500 square feet if needed.

The team is also looking for local engineers and machinists to assist the students with the designing of a new robot, as well as machining and fabrication services like laser cutting, milling, lathing, working with sheet metal and water jets, etc. Additionally, the team is in need of tools and parts from McMaster-Carr, MSC, Grainger and online metals.

Please contact Deneise Turner if you have leads on any large or warehouse space where these young, inquisitive minds can continue to develop and grow.

The key takeaways from the most recent Incredible Corridor study, Mountain Industrial Boulevard and Jimmy Carter Boulevard from East Ponce de Leon Avenue to Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, are that nearly 30,000 trips occur along the corridor during peak commuting hours, 400,000-500,000 trips per day begin and end within the study area and that 25% travel only two miles or less.

To help combat the congestion, the counties, cities and CID partners are considering three transit options: a local bus that connects Gwinnett County and MARTA bus services to improve connectivity through the corridor; an arterial bus rapid transit that travels along high-frequency transit lines with transit priority treatments; or a coordinated employer shuttle that connects apartment complexes with employers.

Once the partners gather feedback on these options, they will identify the next steps and actions to begin implementing the best plans.

Learn more about the Incredible Corridor conditions and upcoming plans on our website.

Make sure your planned signage and architectural structures are within regulations! Review the Tucker Overlay District Regulations on our website.