Legislative committee holds first meeting on city of Brookhaven

Legislation to create a city of Brookhaven has begun moving through the state General Assembly.

The Government Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives met Jan. 24 to hear the results of a feasibility study on a city of Brookhaven done by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia.

Rep. Mike Jacobs, R-DeKalb, gave the committee a presentation on the report. Jacobs, who along with Rep. Tom Taylor, R-Dunwoody, introduced the legislation to create a city of Brookhaven last year, said the cities of Dunwoody and Johns Creek were studied because of their similarities to the Brookhaven community in proximity and population.

Jacobs said the process that Brookhaven is going through to become a city is very similar to what Dunwoody, its DeKalb County neighbor, went through just a few years ago.

“We believe Dunwoody is a very close analogue for Brookhaven,” Jacobs said.

The meeting was the first of three expected before the Governmental Affairs Committee on the proposal before it is considered by the full Legislature. The next committee meeting is set for Jan. 31 at 3 p.m. in room 341 of the state Capitol. Public comment is to be allowed at that hearing.

Committee Chairman Rep. Mark Hamilton, R-Cumming, said he is aware that the proposal to create a city of Brookhaven is a sensitive one and pledged to make the hearing process open and transparent, and urged supporters and opponents of the bill to do the same.

In recent weeks, people have organized groups to campaign for or against the proposed new city.

About 200 residents attended a meeting Jan. 17 during which members of BrookhavenYES, a newly formed advocacy group, solicited volunteers to help lobby state lawmakers and promote incorporation of the proposed new city.

“It’s just time for us to have a smaller government, one that’s more responsive to our needs,” said Stan Segal, one of eight BrookhavenYES leaders who led the meeting at Oglethorpe University.

After the general discussion, members of the crowd signed up for committees to handle communications, grassroots organizing, community outreach, business outreach and lobbying the state Legislature.

“Tonight’s meeting is for people who want to get to vote July 31,” BrookhavenYES member Linley Jones told the crowd at Oglethorpe. “If we want that vote, we have to organize now.”

Members of BrookhavenYES argued the new city would improve police protection and park maintenance in the area, increase the local government’s responsiveness and increase enforcement of zoning and building codes on apartments along Buford Highway.

“DeKalb County has 700,000 people in it. We’re larger than many states of the union,” BookhavenYES provisional president J. Max Davis said. “The whole purpose of this movement is to localize things.”

Meanwhile, Laurenthia Mesh, spokeswoman for a group called the Ashford Neighbors, which opposes the proposed city, said she had sent state lawmakers copies of more than 500 signatures on a petition asking to slow down the incorporation process. “Our community has been here since 1822, when the county was incorporated,” she said. “Residents have a strong sense of community. They want to be left alone.”

And Rep. Elena Parent, D-DeKalb, says debates over the proposed city of Brookhaven convinced her that she should introduce legislation to “tweak” state laws governing the creation of new cities to make the process more transparent. “The incorporation laws we have now need some work,” she told about 50 people gathered Jan. 23 for a town hall meeting at the DeKalb County public library branch in Doraville. “I think our process could use a little more sanity.”

The Brookhaven debate has created disputes over which neighborhoods and commercial districts should be included in the new city. Jacobs has adjusted the proposed boundaries to remove the airport, which already is partially in Chamblee, and Century Center, an office park near neighborhoods that were not included.

A city in the area would cover about 12 square miles and would include more than 49,000 residents, making it the most populous city in DeKalb County, according to the Vinson Institute.

The study found the city could be financed without raising homeowners’ property taxes above the level charged by DeKalb.

Jacobs told members of the committee the “big ticket” items for supporters of a city of Brookhaven are taxes, parks and police services.

He said the study modeled the potential city’s parks budget on the city of Roswell, because Brookhaven residents would like to spend more money on the area’s parks than the county now spends.

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