Eminent Domain Public Notice Sign placed on Briarwood Rd. in Brookhaven. Photo: Trey Benton
Brookhaven, GA, June 28, 2017 – by Anna Williams for The Post – The Peachtree Creek Greenway (PCG) group said on Tuesday they are supporting the City of Brookhaven’s decision to utilize Eminent Domain to secure a 19-acre parcel located at 1793 Briarwood Rd., that will eventually become a trailhead for the proposed 12-mile multi-purpose linear park planned along the North Fork of Peachtree Creek. Three of those 12-miles are in Brookhaven.
According to Brookhaven leaders, negotiations with the land owner of the 19-acre tract have reached a stalemate. The City says they have been trying to settle on a fair price for the land for more than a year and it’s just not happening. So, with their mind set on owning this property, Brookhaven is forging ahead with using eminent domain – asking a Judge to decide the fair market price the City will pay the owner when they take ownership.
By law, the City of Brookhaven will be required to compensate the current owners for a fair market value for the property. The City says more than 83% of this tract is located in a floodplain and unbuildable.
“The land has been on the market since its purchase many years ago,” the PCG group said Tuesday. “According to local reporting sources, the property appears to be listed as much as 5 times more than its appraised value. The land has had pieces broken off and sold, and what remains is virtually unbuildable due to Georgia Power easements, DeKalb County sewer easements, and the flood plain.”
19 Acres located near 1793 Briarwood Rd. – Subject of an Eminent Domain action by the City of Brookhaven. Image: COB
According to the PCG group, the Greenway is part of a regional transportation plan that has been in the works since the 1990’s. Three of the proposed 12 mile path are in the City of Brookhaven. In Brookhaven the Greenway runs along a creek, but also runs parallel to MARTA’s busiest bus route in Atlanta — Buford Highway — and one of the busiest car routes in the southeast — I-85.
PCG says unlike a typical neighborhood park, the Greenway’s length and location will ensure that cyclists and pedestrians can and will use it instead of a car. In addition to being an alternative transportation corridor, the Peachtree Creek Greenway group says the multi-use patch will save trees, clean up the waterway, improve public health, and provide recreation for people from all walks of life including walkers, joggers, dog owners, and families, accessible to wheelchairs and strollers alike.
Brookhaven’s City Council unanimously approved in March, a not to exceed $325,276 contract with the PATH Foundation to provide design work for the Peachtree Creek Greenway. According to the City, the contract total “represents a steep discount compared to for-profit firms, as the PATH Foundation leverages personal and corporate donations of professional services and overhead to achieve their mission to build a system of interlinking greenway trails through metro Atlanta region.”
Georgia Legislators also voted to approve, later signed into Law by Governor Nathan Deal, a request by Brookhaven to increase the City’s Hotel/Motel tax from 5% to 8%, setting the tax on an equal plane to what DeKalb County already assesses. A portion of the increased tax proceeds will be dedicated to the plus or minus, $38 million Peachtree Creek Greenway project.
The first phase is expected to cost $9 million, which the hotel/motel tax is expected to be used to service a 20-year revenue bond. City estimates indicate the annual amount available for construction of the Peachtree Creek Greenway from an increase in the hotel/motel tax rate to 8 percent, will be about $650,000 annually.
“The sellers want to sell and the buyers want to buy. So why use eminent domain? The selling price is the problem. The City is asking the court to help establish the price as determined by professional appraisers,” PCG says. “Peachtree Creek Greenway, Inc. supports the City of Brookhaven’s use of eminent domain in this specific case to determine a fair and equitable purchase price of the land at 1793 Briarwood Rd, Brookhaven, GA.”
There will be a hearing on this topic at Brookhaven City Hall, located at 4362 Peachtree Rd, on June 29th at 7:00 PM.
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51 Comments on "Peachtree Creek Greenway group supporting Brookhaven’s use of eminent domain to secure 19-acre tract"
Who’s included in the PCG?
More information can be found on their website. The Board of Directors is here. http://www.peachtreecreek.org/board-of-directors/
Thank you. Their website implies they’re a non-profit. Hotel Motel tax dollars can be diverted thru non-profits that regulate a special district, like the Peachtree Creek Greenway, for operating revenue, executive salaries and administration expenses with no cap.
The article mentioned ‘Group’. Thanks for clarifying 100 percent of the board supports eminent domain.
Yes, the Peachtree Creek Greenway, Inc. is an all-volunteer non-profit (501c3) with a small budget that we raise. We get no funds from the City. We are a grassroots advocacy group.
I need to get my mower, set it as low as possible and cut that grass. I wonder what the end cost yearly will be for maintenance and police patrols for an understaffed police department. Anyone have any cost projections?
Of course they do- they wanted to take over backyards in Pine Hills, so don’t be surprised if they go back to that, you know “for the greater good”.
Brookhaven has already started bullying people regarding stream buffers. We had to get yet another land survey done at our house because Brookhaven was once again attacking it. Surprise, surprise – we are once again NOT in any sort of 75 ft violation- something which is pretty obvious to anyone that’s not seeing impaired.
Sooo WRONG! PCG Group? 10 more self-important people who think they know what’s best for everyone else. Just like the BPCA. Makes me sick.
We, the self important elites know what is best for you (walk, bike), the city (urban all the way baby!), and the environment (big buildings and wide sidewalks trees are for the birds) so stay out of our way or we will take it from you.
Ha! Not the majority, just a chosen few! And that isn’t me and you!
This is the Brookhaven that the majority wanted.
Welcome to your Brookhaven.
Brookhaven getting better & better. We need this, so excited! From what I’ve seen it’s going to be even better than the Beltline i.e. more picturesque & shadier than just a sidewalk (which is basically what the Beltline is). Great that the city is giving attention to this waterway and bringing it to life for all of us to enjoy! *Heather & Janine (and other naysayers) please refrain from making a snide comment @ me just b/c I have a difference of opinion.*
You are just going to love the aroma that permeates the area around the creek bank! Ode de Toilet!
Heather, you need to stop that. They can’t keep doing that to you, it is harassment. This city is no different than dekalb and we hire the same people they do. And that problem starts at the top with Christian Sigman and John Ernst. Once you have proven them wrong stop speaking to them, tell the manager they are not to be on your property again, if they do come call the police and have them issue a trespassing warning. Either way you need to hire and attorney to send a letter.
Thanks, everything finally worked out about a month ago (and hopefully it stays that way)- and not a second too soon because we started seriously considering selling our home and moving out of Brookhaven. We had our home appraised and a good percentage of stuff is in boxes. I’m not the type of person that just gives up, but dealing with both the city and neighborhood association and patrol problems it was just too much. Your home is a place you want to relax, not think, “Oh gawd what now” regularly.
So Brookhaven adopts a 75 buffer/wetlands ordinance and then uses that ordinance to devalue property and offer lower than the owner wants to take? Since he wont sell, the city takes their BS number to a judge to force the sale. This is the leadership of Sigman at its best. How the hell we all thought Garrett was so bad is crazy, this city manager needs to be removed, now.
Does this mean that any resident of Brookhaven living near a wetland or stream will be paid for the city all but TAKING their land too???
What was the buffer ordinance under Dekalb County?
The first bogus Brookhaven government just ignored the law and reality.
The buffer should be 150 feet.
If you don’t want to buy and protect valuable collective water resources, don’t!
What are they going to do to all the houses within 150 ft? Make us move? I’m not being sarcastic this is an honest question.
I got it. Those of us within the 150 ft buffer could just add a pond to our back yard. That would keep us from having to put a pool in the front yard! Problem solved!
Are you one of the men in my neighborhood that keeps coming by my house and staring? Just so you know, it’s starting to get a little creepy.
No new construction within 150′ anywhere. No “variances” for stream buffer incursion, ever again. No new hard surfaces within 150′. Any teardowns would require adjustment of the structure to meet the buffer.
This is entirely possible and is necessary for long term stream health.
That the county made terrible decisions on siting of structures and pavement in the past should never be interpreted as cause to continue making terrible decisions in perpetuity.
Barbara, let me simplify. If your property has some artificially inflated value due to some ‘future use’ you may have in mind, the sooner you come to realize that use will not be allowed, the sooner you will realize what the actual value is.
Real estate agents are already steering clients away from buying homes with creek frontage for fear of continued use of eminent domain– so the devaluation of other properties has already started.
If the stream buffer is protected, there is no reason to be concerned.
Many people will even pay more for active, protective stewardship!
I used to live on protected conservation land in Massachusetts and the way Brookhaven is running things could not be more different. . . .
No offense, but you really don’t know a lot of Brookhaven residents that well. One of the threats we got after offering to to completely sponsor (purchase and maintain) a dogipot on our corner was that Pine Hills residents should all save up their feces and drive it to our house and dump it in our yard.
That’s nice.
That isn’t part of the discussion in Ashford Park.
I talked to a realtor yesterday that said she had several people decline to look at Brookhaven homes because of negative things they had heard about our city government and some residents. I asked for details but she preferred not to elaborate. If true, that will discount your house a little too.
Possibly, unless the buffer is rigorously enforced so there are not enormous costs for runoff contamination forced upon all city taxpayers.
Why would Brookhaven Residents be above the LAW?
I realize you have a problem with a neighbor but I cannot comprehend what that has to do with appropriate stream buffer and protection?
For the record none of our neighbors’ surveys show we are violating the stream buffer ordinance or dispute/call in to question the validity of our many property surveys.
In fact they further prove that we are not violating any ordinance or breaking the law.
It’s all so exhausting.
If you are within the code, what is the concern?
That I believe is the million dollar question.
There is a reason so many new homes are sitting in Brookhaven and not elsewhere. This city is not run well and people know it. Sandy springs or Decatur is much better than the Christian sigman circus.
I believe there are homes for sale in Sandy Springs and Decatur if you find that so attractive.
LOL. Maybe Babs will move.
The concept of legitimate governance seems to give her the vapors.
Eddie, she has the vapors and you turn Japanese? LOL!
A few things. (1) the stream buffer is identical to the DeKalb ordinances–nothing has changed with Brookhaven, (2) the city has actually offered more than the original asking price when the property was listed several years ago, but the owner jacked the price when he found a “captive” buyer.
This City is using legal tools to negotiate a sale price. It would be an irresponsible use of taxpayer $$$ to NOT use all means available to negotiate the best price.
So you think it is responsible for Brookhaven to spend countless thousands of our dollars to all but sue someone to force them to sell the land to the city? Thats responsible? If the guys wants $130,000,000 then thats what he wants. This is not for a highway, its for a park entrance. Why the hell do we have a park with no access anyway??? This is wrong.
He could probably get that much if it could be permitted for a nuclear waste dump but it can’t and he won’t.
Yeah, or we could all pay a little extra in taxes for you to move
Did you Major in missing the point?
Do you remember the last time you were nice to anyone on this site? Good have you here, neighbor.
I’m nice to many.
I have a problem with anyone who pretends to be above the law.
June 29, 2017 – Mayor & City Council decide whether to use eminent domain.
June 30, 2017 – Mayor & City Council dedicate controversial Comfort Women memorial.
November 7, 2017 – Half the City Council comes up for reelect, or not.
What is wrong with comfort women memorial?
I am proud that our city it honoring the sculpture and for the life of me I do not understand why people are freaking out.
I’ve talked several real estate agents that are now advising people to stay away from creek/stream front properties in Brookhaven for fear of future eminent domain use– so this isn’t just hurting the seller it’s harming a good number of people that might like to sell or, at minimum, not have their home or property devalue.