Politics & Government

No Thanks, Dunwoody: Poll Shows Brookhaven Residents Favor Incorporation

Brookhaven residents raise money for a study to look at all options.

Merging with Dunwoody isn't the most popular for North Brookhaven residents, according to a recent poll.

Rep. Mike Jacobs commissioned a poll earlier this month to get a sense for how residents of the slice of unincorporated south of Dunwoody feels about the options of incorporation of a city of Brookhaven, or being annexed into either Dunwoody or Chamblee.

The poll found that residents favor creating a city of Brookhaven, or staying unincorporated more than annexing with either Dunwoody or Chamblee.

Find out what's happening in Dunwoodywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

John Garst, president of Rosetta Stone Communications (no affiliation with Rosetta Stone language learning company), said his company polled 227 registered voters out of the 6,000 voters in the Montgomery, Ashford Parkside, and Ashford Dunwoody voting precincts, which together are roughly bounded by I-285 to the north, the Fulton-DeKalb line to the west, Windsor Parkway to the south, and the Chamblee city limits to the east.

Garst said the company, which has conducted several polls for Jacobs in the past, used a method called Interactive Voice Response (IVR) to poll voters on a series of questions over the course of three nights.

Find out what's happening in Dunwoodywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"It’s a very high number," Garst said of the polling sample.  "There are polls from the presidency that include about 200 people. This poll is almost five percent of the entire electorate. It's an enormous sample for an area that size."

More than 30 percent of residents favored incorporation of a City of Brookhaven, while 22 percent want to remain unincorporated. The poll showed that 19 percent favored annexing with Dunwoody, while 10 percent favored going with Chamblee.

It isn’t the only gauge being taken on the issue. The Brookhaven Chamblee Homeowners and Neighborhood Business Alliance (BCHNBA) put up $25,000 to have The Georgia Institute of Technology and Clark Atlanta University conduct a  study to determine the financial and social benefits of annexation and/or incorporation of Brookhaven. The study is expected to take six months. 

The full results of Jacobs' poll can be .

 

Peter Cox contributed to this report


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