State Legislators: City of Ashford Not Final

Although the House Governmental Affairs Committee in favor of an amendment to change the name from the city of Brookhaven to the city of Ashford in HB 636, the new name is far from 'written in stone," said state legislators.

That's good news for local real estate agent , who writes an independent on Patch. Smyth, who lives in Brookhaven, said the name change would be 'catastrophic' to property values and would be "useless to residents."

"No one uses the name Ashford," Smyth said. "[The name] is aligned with one tiny school in Brookhaven. No one talks like that. No one has ever talked about the city of Ashford. We only refer to this area as Brookhaven."

Rep. Edward Lindsey, (R-54), the majority whip who introduced the amendment, told Patch Tuesday that while he introduced the change, he is not adverse to an alternative to 'Ashford'.

"Ashford is a name that’s littered throught the area," Lindsey said. "We have Ashford Park, Ashford Dunwoody, it's a name that's commonly associated with that area. I thought it would be a name that would be a fair representation of the proposed city. I’m certainly open to something else, just not Brookhaven."

Lindsey, who lives on the Atlanta side of Historic Brookhaven and who is in favor of a new city, said he and his neighbors believe that the Brookhaven name should be reserved for the neighborhood rather than that of a new city. Proponents of the name change said Historic Brookhaven, which is surrounded by Peachtree Road on the south; Peachtree Dunwoody Road on the west; Windsor Parkway on the north; and Osborne Road on the east, already has a well-known identity.

Rep. Mike Jacobs, the bill's sponsor, told Channel 2 news Tuesday that "there are many other opportunities in the legislative process to make adjustments, including the name."

, the leader of the cityhood advocacy group BrookhavenYES, said the fact that the bill moved through the house governmental affairs committee is a victory for proponents of a new city and that a name change shouldn't discourage residents fighting for local governance.

"We heard that there may be some amendments and we weren’t too put off track by that," Davis said. "The fact is that the boundaries passed the committee is the first big step and that’s the first brick in the foundation of a new city. It definitely was a victory."

Davis said he is confident that the name will likely change to something other than Ashford. Options mentioned so far were: Brookhaven Hills, North Brookhaven and East Brookhaven. His group has not setteld on anything final, he said.

House Bill 636, the bill to create a charter for a new city of Ashford, formerly Brookhaven, will now go before the Rules Committee, chaired by Republican State Rep. John Meadows of District 5 in Calhoun. This is the next big step in the nearly year-long legislative process since Jacobs introduced related incorporation and annexation legislation last March.

If the bill is passed out of the Rules committee, it will then go to the House floor for a third reading and vote, then repeat the same process in the Senate.