Emory University Wants in to the City of Atlanta

Melissa Korn reports:

Emory University for years has been making the case that it is engaged in, and contributing to, the city of Atlanta. Now, it wants to officially become part of the metropolis.

The nearly 15,000-student research university, which already brands itself as being in Atlanta and has an Atlanta address, filed paperwork Tuesday to annex itself into the city’s borders. Currently, the school’s 630 acre campus isn’t under the city’s jurisdiction, but lies in adjacent unincorporated DeKalb County.

One of the largest potential benefits of annexation, for the campus, would be better chances of locating a stop along a potential expansion of the MARTA light rail system.

Korn also ties the action by Emory to the larger national trend of universities and cities forging closer ties as an economic development strategy. Philadelphia, and its work with Drexel University and the University Pennsylvania, is held up as exemplar of the trend, as it has by Planetizen on several occasions over the years.