The crowd was often loud and generally not in favor of creating a new city on the edge of the city of Tucker.

“Tucker has a long history – over a hundred years – and they have a very strong community identity, “said Mary Kay Woodworth with the Lakeside Alliance.

She said that strong sense of identity led to a lot of tough questions from the standing-room-only crowd of about 500 people.

“There were questions about taxes, boundaries.... The biggest concern always is, what’s it going to cost,” she said.

Woodworth estimated the city of Lakeside would have 60,000 residents, making it much more representative than DeKalb County, with more than 700,000 residents. Each home would have a larger voice in local matters, she said.

The meeting was called by County Commissioner Elaine Boyer. At one point, the crowd yelled at one of the speakers, many of them shouting they wanted Tucker to be left alone. Boyer, at one point, told the crowd, “I’m not going to allow shouting. That’s just rude.”

In spite of the loud crowd at last night’s meeting, a bill was introduced yesterday under the Gold Dome, starting the legislative process of creating the city of Lakeside.

The bill is a “placeholder” for the 2014 General Assembly, the earliest the Legislature can take up the issue.

The next meeting sponsored by the Lakeside Alliance is next Monday in Toco Hills.