The DeKalb County commission, in order to...in their words... "establish a vision for future of the Brookhaven area" adopted the Brookhaven LCI overlay in 2005. For anyone to say that Brookhaven isn't an 'area' and is only a neighborhood...well, you have a lot of documentation by the county to overcome...not to mention the anecdotal and private publication evidence.

The Brookhaven LCI overlay, which includes Peachtree, all of Oglethorpe Univ., and parts of Ashford-Dunwoody, Dresden, and Apple Valley Rd. is clearly the central core of the area known as Brookhaven. The county says as much in its own publications about the LCI.

95% of the area inside the city boundaries of Brookhaven is within 2 miles or less of the Brookhaven overlay. (For example, Murphey Candler Park is 2 miles from the overlay, it's 2 miles from the Brookhaven Marta Station to I-85/Clairmont, it's 2 miles from the Fulton County line at P'tree to the county line at I-85, etc.)

For comparison's sake, it is roughly 2 miles from the Dunwoody village to 285 or from the Dunwoody village to the Dunwoody CC on the north end of the city.

Here is DeKalb County discussing transportation needs in the Northern quadrant...

"North DeKalb has three major activity and growth areas:
Perimeter, Chamblee/Doraville, and Brookhaven. Each center has unique development, land use and transportation characteristics which effect certain travel patterns and traffic generation."

http://www.co.dekalb.ga.us/ctp/index.htm

Here is a county document in describing road and drainage projects in 'Brookhaven' between 1975 and 2005.

BROOKHAVEN - COMPLETED PROJECTS
1. Road Paving and Drainage Improvements - 1977
Tugaloo and Oostanaula

http://www.co.dekalb.ga.us/commdev/pdf/CumulativeProjectsReport-2006.pdf

"2 miles across the Texas border into Mexico is still Mexico. Not Texas"

Right. The border is key. Just like until Texas had a border, you didn't know if you were in Mexico or Texas. Giving the area of Brookhaven a defined border will define what is and what isn't Brookhaven.

Cool. I guess we agree.

Or maybe you would have just called Texas, North Mexico? That would be a generic name that would have been best for all, right? I mean, that's what it was for many years as part of the Spanish territory. I don't know why they didn't just keep that name.

I'm not sure what your point is. I think the point you are trying to make is that Buford Hwy is scary and that somehow having that area in a 'city of Brookhaven' will be detrimental to property values or something? I disagree...I mean, we all share the unincorporated DeKalb name now, right? I doubt continuing to share a name will do anything to diminish home values. If the area in Buford Hwy improves from a standpoint of crime thanks to improved police coverage, zoning and code enforcement, it will probably be a win-win.

By the way, why wasn't this called the "North Atlanta Shoe Company" considering it was in "North Atlanta"?

http://dlib.gsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/lane&CISOPTR=5925&CISOBOX=1&REC=19

This one is my favorite, though...from the late 40s..for some reason, the DeKalb county fire station that serviced North Atlanta was called the Brookhaven Fire Department.

http://dlib.gsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/lane&CISOPTR=4012&CISOBOX=1&REC=12

None of that really proves anything...but old photos are fun and it's always interesting to see that the Brookhaven name hasn't belonged only to one neighborhood.

By the way, Brookhaven Heights, which isn't part of 'historic Brookhaven' was subdivided in 1913. Just food for thought.

Mr. William, the police coverage on Buford Highway in a new city will never be as good as it is now. I am all over the Buford Highway, Peachtree Road, Old Cross Keys, and Brookhaven (traditional) area and DCPD has a presence and is very responsive to area calls. DCPK knows the gangs and their players and communicates with the GCPD gang division. A new city with a new police department will be like the Chamblee police department with their cast of clowns quick to hand out a ticket but less proficient at anything more important.

If you look hard, you will find a few more pictures of “old North Atlanta” or Brookhaven as everyone called the area. By the way, let me know if you find an old picture of the old Oglethorpe train station. Years after it was abandoned as a train station and a decade before it was demolitioned to make way for the MARTA line a Greek fellow had a wonderful Greek restaurant there; I used to sell him meats and other needs. Very authentic Greek food, just like being in a small town restaurant in Greece.

'A generic city name will protect the Brookhaven "Niche".'

I don't follow the logic. The name already identifies an area outside of Historic Brookhaven, no matter how much that may offend residents of HB.

Buckhead is already a town in Georgia, so that name would be ruled out.

Mr. Lowe, even though there was a City of North Atlanta, no one ever referred to the commercial and mercantile area on Peachtree Road located from Colonial Drive to the southern boundary of what is now called Brookhaven Park (the old VA Hospital) by that name. In the late 1800’s it was known as Goodwin Crossing. By the early 1900’s this fledgling mercantile area was known as Brookhaven. The City of North Atlanta was so ineffective that the name Brookhaven overshadowed it. Everyone said “I am going to the Brookhaven A&P” (close to the fire station) or “Can you drop me off at the Brookhaven hardware store?” (in a mercantile strip approximately where McDonalds is located) and occasionally you will hear “That damn Neal Boortz got his start in Atlanta talk radio in that old Brookhaven office park (at Peachtree and North Druid Hills) where the old WRNG 680 AM Ring Radio studio was located”.

The old fire station was just north of the Waffle House on Peachtree Road. If you look to the left of the fire trucks you can see the elevated railroad bed. What, less than a half mile from the current fire station?

I will give a hamburger with thin sliced pickles and onions and yellow mustard to anyone that can tell me what the CH stood for in the phone number listed on the face of the building. Hamburger anyone?

Hamburger,

I will take you up on that burger offer. CH probably stood for the Chamblee telephone Exchange which is the oldest building on Chamblee Dunwoody Road near West Hospital.

Mr. Lowe, it is with great sadness that I have to say no hamburger for you . . . The CH stood for Cherokee and the dial exchange was initiated in 1931 along with a new switching system being introduced by Southern Bell. Switching took place in a new building at the corner of Peachtree and Roswell Roads and the new office was called Cherokee.

Prior to Cherokee the area was Hemlock HE, serviced by a switching office on Crescent Street in downtown Atlanta. The initial Chamblee switching office was constructed around 1949 and I believe it has been modified a time or two.

Please pass that yellow mustard . . .

The only reason I see for incorporating now is that it will be much more difficult in the future. Dekalb will try to lock this down shortly. There are plenty of reasons to not incorportate now. The he primary reason being one of due diligence. This needs to be done right, not quickly.

@Robert Young: If you are serious about that statement, then the same logic would seem to recommend incorporating now and figuring out the costs later... which is wacky. I agree with Rick - do it right and know the facts (beforehand).

Mr Young, kind of like "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it." Just substitute city for bill . . . Right?

Thomas Porter,

A cost-benefit analysis has already been done, and came out to the positive. Do you fail to see the big picture? This area is more urban and upscale than Chamblee. Right now, this area is having tax dollars siphoned off to subsidize south DeKalb County. With lower-income Chamblee gobbling up vast swathes of land, the chance that they might just annex the whole area is a risk. Once they get Plaza Fiesta, the area is adjacent/contiguous. I don't know about you, but Brookhaven/North Atlanta/Ashford doesn't feel like "Chamblee" to me. Incorporating first and then putting the name to a vote seems like a good idea. You have to first establish legal control over the area. The window of opportunity to incorporate is there at the moment, but could soon close. What about the 27-story building just south of I-285? What if Dunwoody decides to cross the interstate?

HamBurger

9:10 am on Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Mr Young, kind of like "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it." Just substitute city for bill . . . Right?

To Hamburger: Your straw-man position is silly. Get real. A study has already been done showing the area is revenue-positive. The proposed area has been mapped and is geographically contiguous. This is not a matter of "not knowing what is in the bill." Being able to vote on a name sounds like a fair and equitable solution for all. Making the "name" the bigger issue misses the point. The point is that local government often manages better than bloated county government, but that county government is moving to block incorporation, so the window of opportunity is narrow to get this "city" re-formed. North Atlanta should never have de-incorporated in the first place.

@Robert Young - The cost-benefit analysis is grotesquely flawed and incomplete. I must not see the "big picture" because I fail to see the conspiracies that you see of the land-grabbing cities and therefore I will not react with knee-jerk paranoia. Yours seems like old-school nuclear weapon theory - get them before they get you. Silly.

Mr. Young, respectfully, you might want to do a little homework before you thump your chest about how good a new city will be for the North Atlanta area.

The Vinson study takes a recent economic snapshot of the area and interpolates into a city with other mostly new city comparisons. The Vinson study does not take into consideration existing infrastructure and future maintenance and improvements that may be required. The Vinson study does not project out city costs for five, ten, twenty years or so to substantiate viability and taxpayer costs consistent with what is being sold by pro city individuals and organizations. There are other areas of concern with the study as well.

Additionally, the Vinson study contains this caveat: “Estimates given in this report are based on tax levies and service levels for a city not yet created; and, thus, they should not be viewed as certainties.” You may interpret my cautiousness as silly, but I find it disturbing many have bought the Vinson study on a wholesale basis without asking questions about items that should be included in a serious study being utilized to sell citizens on a new city.

As for the City of North Atlanta being dissolved back in the early 1960’s, it was not doing what it was supposed to do so the citizens got rid of it. Your efforts are better served in changing your existing county government and troubled county school system.

Again, the view of many shilling for a new city . . . "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it." Just substitute city for bill . . . Right!

Excuse me; I have to get that hamburger off the grill . . .

Murphey Candler always felt like a "neighborhood" name, not a city.

"North Atlanta", however, was a city from 1924 to 1965. "Brookhaven," meanwhile, has a "city" feel to it, with Peachtree Industrial Blvd running through the center and buildings as high as 18 stories.

Resident 30319, I am sure the Vinson folks would have been glad to provide a more complete study, however a study giving greater detail was most likely out of the budget of those funding the study. This could be likened to paying a headhunter to find you a new corporate president for your company and electing not to perform a background check to be certain of what you are contracting with for the next five years.

Excuse me, are those thin sliced onions Peruvian Sweets?

It really does not take much to make any part of Atlanta into a part of Brookhaven. Logic would say that back in the 50's there weren't too many people living in this area, and not too many baseball fields. Closest proximity public field was up the road a ways. Admission by some of the Brookhaven Yes/C$ND board members that Real Estate agents have called Murphey Chandler "Suburban Brookhaven" for 10 years, I find unrealistic. There are a bunch of people out there that would believe it, especially if you came from Podunk Texas. It is also possible that the real estate agent drove them to see houses in a Chevrolet Suburban, took them to the Murphy Candler area and they got confused. Of course, there will be "documented" "proof" that the Northern area has always been known as Brookhaven---which is a crock. Brookhaven has always been centered around Peachtree and Dresden....has grown in size to believably touch Clairmont, back up to Buford Highway and reach Windsor Parkway.

If the Brookhaven name is used for a city of 50,000 people, I think property taxes will drop because home values will drop. The Brookhaven brand will be diminished because of the crime that will come from the Buford Highway area, and the inclusion of the far Northern areas that Dunwoody did not want either. The new city should be called North Atlanta or.....Cross Keys. An even older historical name. Thanks to Kim Gokce for the history lesson.

Joni, now you are seeing the political aspects of this city being formed, pushed through, and the urge for whatever strange reason to use the Brookhaven name for such a large area as opposed to something that is more encompassing. It is a relatively small group that is really promoting this cityhood....and the majority of those promoters do not live in or really near Brookhaven. I will gladly admit I am not in Brookhaven or will be included in the city, but I do believe it is still in my interest to make people aware of what is going on, and to remind them to vote on July 31st. Failure to vote could very well allow a small group of supporters to make this happen for the wrong reasons and without fully vetting the idea of making a city. I want what is best for the area that is around me, and would feel really bad for those that get herded into this only to find it hurts them. Because of proximity, it will more than likely hurt me as well.

What I fear most of all is that there is more to this than just creating a city for "better services, lower taxes." It may very well be a method of creating jobs from nothing, selling/leasing land(where no one currently wants it at a premium price), new contracts to supporters, and finally a way to increase property values based solely off of a name. This is just a theory, nothing more. Rational thought does not give me another explanation.

BTW, I know how to spell Murphey Candler....I switch it around for fun.

What is ridiculous is that there are possibly enough sheep out there being herded by a few to actually make this thing happen.

Those that want a city will not vote for it unless it has the Brookhaven name. This will most definitely fail in a public vote without the Brookhaven name. Sure, people cry--we want better this and lower that, and better representation, and our money to be spent in our area....Without that name Brookhaven in their address, they will vote against it. I guess you could call it snobbish, and I am NOT referring to the Historic Brookhaven people.

Remember to vote on July 31st, and don't make up your mind with what is written on message boards.....Listen to your politicians in person....ask them questions in a public forum.....Look out for any side stepping or backpedaling. It's there.