Town Hall Meeting draws Proponents and Skeptics of Incorporation Talks

Police service, parks and taxes were simultaneously among chief concerns and praise used either for or against the argument of whether to incorporate Brookhaven during Tuesday night's town hall meeting with legislators.

More than 300 stakeholders - mainly in the areas of Historic Brookhaven, Ashford Park, Brookhaven Fields, Brookhaven Heights, Silver Lake and Murphey Candler Park - filed into a standing-room only crowd in Fellowship Hall at the Chamblee First United Methodist Church to learn more about the idea and Rep. Mike Jacobs’ rationale behind his recently introduced annexation bill.

Rep. Tom Taylor and Sen. Fran Millar joined Jacobs in his presentation to the crowd. Both legislators, who represent Dunwoody and parts of Brookhaven, pointed to the new city's success as an example of improved services, particularly in public safety. While Dunwoody still uses county fire and trash services, residents there pay 40 percent lower taxes than unincorporated DeKalb County, Jacobs said.

“Let’s be clear, no incorporation will happen unless the residents of Brookhaven want it to happen,” Jacobs said. “This will be a citizen driven initiative.”

Jacobs said the legislation gives residents the “right to do a resolution and referendum without having to have an intergovernmental agreement from the county.”

Jacobs also his intentions to “drop a city charter” for Brookhaven – a necessary step he said in maintaining the plan's momentum in case the majority of citizens decide cityhood would be best for the community.

Kristen Boyer, a Murphey Candler resident, said she was open to exploring options of cityhood primarily because she has had first-hand experience on how badly the parks are maintained by the county.

"[Murphey Candler Park] is falling apart," she said. "The trees are falling into the lake, the fields are flooding and nothing has been done by the county."

Similarly, J. Max Davis, an attorney who lives in unincorporated DeKalb County, said he and his neighbors pay $500 annually per homeowner to a private security patrol to provide services because DeKalb County Police does not patrol his neighborhood.

“We’re paying taxes for a service, but we’re not getting nothing in return,” he said.

Not everyone was as optimistic about the possibility of incorporation, however. 

Marlene Syler, she is one think that “we should be happy staying unincorporated. The services have worked well for me and my family for 40 years,” she said to applause.

, the freshman Democrat who represents District 81 which includes Brookhaven's Ashford Park and Drew Valley neighborhoods, said Tuesday night that she was there to learn about the idea and to find out what her constituents were thinking.

"I wasn't involved in this and didn't know that there was a map that included neighborhoods in my district," Parent said.  "I would have preferred to be able to get a sense of where my community stood. That being said, I have no knee-jerk reaction and where I stand is with whatever the residents in my district want."

Brookhaven is an unincorporated peninsula nestled northeast of Atlanta with a population well over 40,000, Brookhaven would be DeKalb County’s largest city if it were to incorporate.

State Rep. Mike Jacobs (R-80) and colleague Tom Taylor (R-79) introduced a bill early this month that would allow North Brookhaven neighborhoods, particularly areas of Murphey Candler, West Nancy Creek and Silver Lake, the ability to annex with Dunwoody. Jacobs since amended HB 428 to include possibly annexing with Chamblee.

A recent telephone poll in which Jacobs surveyed a sampling of 227 of the 6,000 registered voters in the Montgomery, Ashford Parkside, and Ashford Dunwoody voting precincts, denote that out of the 68 Democrats polled, 61 percent favored annexation or incorporation.

However, neighborhood associations including the Ashford Park Civic Association and the Brookhaven Chamblee Home Owners and Neighborhood Business Alliance oppose the idea.

Whether Brookhaven has the capital to finance its own community will be evaluated in a feasibility study, Jacob said.