DeKalb County may soon request that a decision on a new city of Brookhaven be postponed for at least a year, a delay that incenses cityhood supporters but one that is welcomed by some north DeKalb residents.
“I don’t get the impression that people who live here really know what is happening,” said Chris Armistead, whose Clairmont Terrace neighborhood near Clairmont Road and Buford Highway sits outside the proposed new city lines. “There is no reason to rush until we know.”
County Commissioner Jeff Rader has proposed the Legislature halt new cities or annexations in DeKalb until it can set up a task force to study what impact Brookhaven – and other cities that could follow – would have on the county’s ability to raise money and provide services.
A study is due by month's end on whether a city of Brookhaven would be financially viable. All new cities must make that case -- but not what their creation might do to the finances of their counties or other cities -- before a public vote can be held on incorporation.
Doug Dykhuizen, a member of the group exploring Brookhaven cityhood, said DeKalb was free to pursue a study of how it might be affected but only as long as it doesn’t slow that possible vote next year.
“We shouldn’t have to meet a new test that no other new city had to,” he said. “It’s fundamentally unfair.”
State Rep. Mike Jacobs, the Brookhaven Republican who launched the movement with study legislation earlier this year, was even more blunt.
“All this delaying tactic does is energize those of us who have been saying DeKalb is part of the problem,” he said. “If Bookhaven citizens want to move forward with a city next year, we are moving forward with a city.”
Rader contends he is not opposed to cityhood, either for Brookhaven or any other future city.
Part of his proposal in fact allows for forming future cities or townships across all of DeKalb, taking into account nearby existing cities or historical hamlets or communities.
“There has been no analysis or strategy developed for what appropriate boundaries of any city are,” Rader said. “This is an opportunity to develop a strategy for the entire county.”
That strategy acknowledges DeKalb’s unique position in following the urbanization of neighboring Fulton. All but 50,000 of the more than 1.1 million people in Fulton live in cities, including four new municipalities that formed since 2005. Those cities were formed without task force review.
That sort of development costs counties money by drawing away income such as business fees. The creation of Dunwoody in 2008, for instance, cost DeKalb between $16 and $18 million.
As being studied by the Vinson Institute of Government, Brookhaven would include about 10,000 more people than Dunwoody and would stretch all the way from I-285 down to the Fulton County line and I-85.
Study maps propose Brookhaven taking commercial properties along main roads but not the neighborhoods behind them. One result of that strategy: more than 1,200 homes are stuck in an unincorporated island off Clairmont Road, between I-85, Brookhaven and Chamblee.
"There is a gap in how this is being set up," said state Rep. Elena Parent, D-Brookhaven, who has heard from residents worried about being isolated. "The municipalization process is now a matter of who can get there first and grab the land, not a discussion about what's best for all of the residents."
Rader said all he wants is a more comprehensive discussion with the proposal, which appears to have enough votes to be included in the county commission’s legislative agenda for the upcoming session.
The commission could vote on that agenda – which includes requiring the CEO to create a purchasing policy approved by the commission and adding another DeKalb seat to the Atlanta Regional Commission – at its Oct. 25 meeting.
“My hope would be you forestall any referendums for a year and look at these issues so regardless of what happens, we end up with a more sustainable county for everyone,” Rader said.
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