Back to Brookhaven! Action Needed

Quick post today, but I had to get this out. As many of you know the Brookhaven Cityhood bill was changed by the State Senate from the City of Brookhaven to the City of Ashford...

(pause)

Hmm... City of Ashford?? Where is that you ask? Exactly! Whether you are for, against, or undecided about cityhood- at least let the vote be for Brookhaven and not Ashford. The credibility and recognition that has been built up around the name Brookhaven and the area it represents will be gone. What about Town Brookhaven, Brookhaven Station, Brookhaven MARTA station, Brookhaven ______ Church, Brookhaven Fields, Brookhaven Heights, Brookhaven Arts Alliance, Brookhaven Beer Fest, and businesses/organizations/neighborhoods with "Brookhaven" in the name??  Our area will go through an identity crisis that will be confusing to prospective home buyers, businesses, developers and residents alike.  Just like a business, brand recognition for a city is important to sustaining the locality and "image" of the area to outsiders and potential residents.  This can affect property values, future developments and the desire to live in a given area.  Let's not throw everything Brookhaven has built as a community out the window by changing our identity.    

Anyway, now that you know the official position of us here at BHreveiw, if you feel the same way, step up to action.

There has been a lot of media activity around this subject, but I did want to let you know that the senators will be meeting tomorrow, February 28th at 2:00pm to revisit this subject. In order for them to even consider it, they need to hear from you: residents, business owners, visitors about why you think it should be changed back, if you do.

I encourage you to email the senators today (see addresses below) with an email with the subject line: Back to Brookhaven! Encourage them to give us our Brookhaven identity back!

Senate committee:

john.wilkinson@senate.ga.gov

horacena.tate@senate.ga.gov

rita.smith@senate.ga.gov

rick.jeffares@senate.ga.gov

steve.gooch@senate.ga.gov

frank.ginn@senate.ga.gov

donzella.james@senate.ga.gov

doug.stoner@senate.ga.gov


You are also welcome to attend the meeting at the capital. Go to this website to confirm the exact date and time of the hearing:

www.senate.ga.gov/committees/en-US/committee.aspx?Committee=85&Session=21

City of Brookhaven- Update!

Brookhaven Study Area Finalized

The proposal to create a new City of Brookhaven in North DeKalb is advancing, with the Citizens for N. DeKalb, an organization tasked with fundraising for a feasibility study examining potential costs and revenues for the new city, selecting final boundaries for that study. The entire study is due to be released shortly and we will release it as soon as it's published!

We know there have been some concerns with a few of the areas, including the neighborhood of our very own Stacy from StacyEats! State Representative Mike Jacobs has released a statement regarding the issues with some of the areas of the study map. In short, they have decided to exclude Century Center, so we will have to see how that effects the outcome of our cityhood... 

You can visit the Citizens for N. DeKalb Website to see the study area map (left) and read the related press releases and also see a great FAQ. 

PS- We totally apologize for the lack of posting... there's no great excuse for it other than being crazy busy. There has been a lot of great new things happening in Brookhaven lately with new shops and restaurants, festivals, and reviews. We will be trying to get back on the wagon (or is it off the wagon...?) and posting more frequently. It's been a great but busy past few months, but we haven't forgotten about you guys. Thanks for staying tuned!

Brookhaven Cityhood

I'm hearing more and more about the possibility and progress with Brookhaven becoming a city. I understand that a group of officials, representatives, and citizens is working on creating by-laws, raising the necessary funds ($25,000), and spreading communication about this endeavor. If incorporated, our community of over 50,000 people would be the largest city in DeKalb County (take that Decatur!).

Did you know that Brookhaven was once a city? Most of the area was formerly incorporated as North Atlanta, which disincorporated during the 1960s. The North Atlanta name has been largely forgotten and replaced by "Brookhaven".

If you're interested in learning more about this effort, sharing your opinion, and/or learning how you can help out- the Ashford Park Civic Association is holding a meeting next week to discuss the WHAT and HOW of the current City of Brookhaven proposals and the various options available to the residents. At this time, there are three potential options available to us - City of Brookhaven (most popular), annexation into the City of Chamblee, or remain in unincorporated Dekalb County. This meeting will be held on Thursday, May 19 at 7:00 p.m in the cafeteria of the Ashford Park Elementary School.

The agenda for this meeting will include: information regarding the current City of Brookhaven bill that is in the "hopper" of the GA State Legislature; a brief discussion from citizens who were involved with the founding of the City of Dunwoody and the recent annexation of Huntley Hills and beyond into the City of Chamblee; followed by a question and answer period.

A vote for cityhood could take place as early as November 2011. This is an exciting time to be living in Brookhaven and I, personally, would love to see my tax dollars spent more locally on parks, transportation, and improvement.

If you have an opinion on any of the three potential options, I would love to hear them! Please comment  below.

Possible Cityhood?

There has been a lot of buzz lately about the possible annexation of North DeKalb County. See below for information that came from a local neighborhood email blast:

Representatives Mike Jacobs (District 80 - Brookhaven, pictured) and Tom Taylor (District 79 - Dunwoody) have introduced a bill (House Bill 428) in the Georgia House of Representatives that would allow "peninsulas of unincorporated areas surrounded by cities" (i.e. north Brookhaven between Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Chamblee city limits) to be annexed into the adjacent municipality after certain procedures are met.

The unexpected introduction of this bill has initiated a firestorm of discussions among our Dekalb neighbors to the west and north. As a result of the community interest in this legislature, Representative Jacobs has scheduled "a community-wide meeting on cityhood and annexation to be held on Tuesday, March 29, at 7:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of Chamblee United Methodist Church, 4147 Chamblee Dunwoody Road" per his latest email blast.

If you have any interest/opinion in this matter, it would be a great idea to attend the public meeting noted above to let your voice be heard.