Residents in Brookhaven look to incorporate

Residents in Brookhaven are the latest in metro Atlanta trying to turn their unincorporated community into its own city.

More than 300 people attended a town hall meeting at Chamblee First United Methodist Church Tuesday night to discuss the possibility of incorporation.

“That is what this legislation is about,” said one resident at Tuesday night’s meeting. “It’s a place holder to preserve our freedom the county can’t take away.”

But some say things are just fine the way they are.

“More taxes and another layer of government – no,” said one resident.

“There is no ground swell to do this,” added another man. “I feel this is the sort of thing that will be put in place and be impossible to stop.”

The meeting was hosted by DeKalb GOP State Rep. Mike Jacobs, who has introduced legislation in the Georgia House that would allow Dunwoody or Chamblee to annex Brookhaven.

“Citizens in this area and I think ultimately citizens throughout Brookhaven will be interested in further exploring the issue,” Rep. Jacobs told Channel 2 Action News. “Now the details are what we will ultimately have to find out.”

A phone poll conducted by Jacobs showed 30.8 percent of the people he talked to wanted to create a city. 21.6 percent wanted to remain unincorporated; 19 percent would like to join Dunwoody; while 10.3 percent would like to join Chamblee. The rest had no opinion.

According to Jacob's bill, the city of Brookhaven would be bounded by Windsor Parkway and Airport Road to the north, I-85 frontage road to the south, Clairmont Road to the east, and Atlanta to the west.