Brookhaven Council signs IGA for new fire station, despite citizen concerns
The Brookhaven City Council voted 3-1 to approve a 50-year intergovernmental agreement to build a new fire station at Blackburn Park despite resident opposition regarding traffic and noise concerns. The post Brookhaven Council signs IGA for new fire station, despite citizen concerns appeared first on Rough Draft®.
During Brookhaven Mayor John Park’s 5 p.m. public meeting on Oct. 13 and a city council meeting held at 6:30 p.m., residents asked the panel to defer a decision or look at alternate sites before signing an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) for a new fire station at Blackburn Park.
After the comments, the Brookhaven City Council voted 3-1 to authorize a 50-year IGA to place the fire station at the original site. Council Member Madeline Simmons was the lone dissenting vote.
The IGA was originally scheduled for consideration at the Sept. 8 meeting, but the panel deferred the item to allow additional community engagement, review, and refinement of the proposal.
Further analysis
During that time, according to a release from the city, it developed a written comparison of alternative locations, which was reviewed by DeKalb Fire Rescue officials. The release said the analysis also took into consideration the concerns raised by the community.
Park, City Manager Christian Sigman, and DeKalb Safety Director Darnell Fullum said the IGA is just the first step in the process, and that they will work with residents to refine the plan.
Under the approved agreement, the city will lease approximately 1.35 acres at Blackburn Park, 3493 Ashford Dunwoody Road, to DeKalb County for a term of 50 years at an annual lease payment of $1. DeKalb County will construct, own, operate and maintain the new fire station.
Jeffery Kammerer, who serves on the city’s audit committee, said the group is going to look at the process by which residents are notified of infrastructure changes, in order to refine the process.
“A third-party assessment will look to see if the city is following the process and if there are ways to improve it,” Kammerer said. “The city wants to be good stewards of the public process.”
The revised agreement, according to the release, includes several provisions intended to address neighborhood and community concerns, “including emergency signal preemption and roadway markings, lighting standards designed to reduce impacts on nearby residences, reasonable efforts to minimize nighttime siren use when conditions permit, additional landscape screening, tree replacement, and approximately 50 public parking spaces to replace parking affected by the project.”
Residents react
Speakers at both the mayor’s meeting and city council, and others leading up to the meeting, said they felt the placement of the fire station did not take into consideration the already congested Johnson Ferry/Ashford Dunwoody intersection and the impact on adjacent neighborhoods. The speakers, which included former council member Linley Jones, also complained that they were only made aware of the pending decision about the location of the station in September.
“The placement of a facility did not merit personal outreach to the most affected neighbors,” Pat Willis said during public comment. “I was grateful to hear from both our council rep and the city manager that they thought this was a mistake as well, and that the future practice, on this kind of development, will follow the example of zone variances.”
After the meeting, Eric Hovdesven, a frequent speaker at the meetings, said he believes that construction will require grading along Ashford Dunwoody and the removal of a significant number of trees. He also called the IGA a done deal regarding the station’s location.
“Though at the meeting, Mr. Sigman said the IGA is just the start of discussions, I think it pretty much seals the deal,” Hovdesven said. “Doing site selection is above my abilities, but if the IGA is for that spot, it’s unlikely they will look for another site.”
Rough Draft reached out to Simmons for comment regarding her dissenting vote, and will update this story with her response.
The post Brookhaven Council signs IGA for new fire station, despite citizen concerns appeared first on Rough Draft®.
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