Brookhaven Residents Consider Annexation/Incorporation, Look at Dunwoody's Example

Annexation into Dunwoody may not be the top pick for many Brookhaven residents, but Tuesday night several held up Georgia’s newest city as a template for cityhood.

Tuesday night, more than 300 residents - mainly in the areas of Historic Brookhaven, Ashford Park, Brookhaven Fields, Brookhaven Heights, Silver Lake and Murphey Candler Park - filed into 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 annexation legislation.

Jacobs, along with Rep. Tom Taylor and Sen. Fran Millar, pointed to Dunwoody’s success as an example of improved services, particularly in public safety.

While Dunwoody still uses county fire and trash services, residents 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.”

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

Jacobs also  Tuesday night that he plans to “drop a city charter” for Brookhaven – a necessary step he said in keeping the momentum of the plan in case the majority of citizens decide cityhood would be best for the community.

The excitement, the ideas and the discussion aren’t anything new to Taylor, who was among the Dunwoody residents who pushed for incorporation five years ago.

Taylor said Wednesday that his task in this discussion is to “kind of guide people through misconceptions and myths.”

“That’s really my role in this, now that I’m a legislator,” the former Dunwoody city councilman said. “I’ve been down this exact path personally and have no problem giving them advice or answering questions.”

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."

J. Max Davis, an attorney who lives in unincorporated DeKalb County said he and his neighbors pay $500 annually per homeowner to a private patrol to provide security because DeKalb County doesn’t 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 cityhood, 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 that Brookhaven's Ashford Park and Drew Valley neighborhood, 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.

Taylor said Dunwoody’s merits were discussed Tuesday.

“I think we convinced them that it’s been very successful,” Taylor said, pointing to the city’s low taxes and $3.5 million surplus.

“We took sovereignty in December 2008 with no money, no staff and no facility,” he said. Two and a quarter years in, he said, the city has maintained strong services with low taxes and a $3.5 million surplus. “Yes, that’s been successful.”

But, he warned, it takes a lot of work and there are many moving parts, including the residential/commercial breakdown of the municipal territory and the efforts of the elected officials.

“Annexation is easier into an established government,” he said. “Having been down the road of forming a government from scratch, I can say it’s damn hard work.”

The decision, Taylor  said, will take a lot of conversation and work.

“The ball is really in the citizens’ court,” he said.

Jacobs had a poll done earlier this month and several local residents are funding a feasibility study for the options on the table.

For more on Tuesday's meeting, including photos and video go to brookhaven.patch.com