Business View Civil and Municipal | Volume 2, Issue 9

174 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 2, ISSUE 9 city a unique place to live. He notes, “What you have is young professionals who don’t necessarily want to live in Atlanta, but they like the amenities of being close by, including access to high-paying jobs. In fact, the northern side of the city lies in what is known as the Central Perimeter District – the largest employment hub for the metro Atlanta region. Then you have families with young children who choose Brookhaven because of the schools. In a lot of metro areas, people with school-aged kids, especially high school, tend to move further out to the suburbs for great schools.” The city’s residents are young, but also highly educated. In the State of Georgia, 30.7 percent of people over age 25 have a bachelor’s degree. Brookhaven’s population with a bachelor’s degree is 67.4 percent. Most are employed at higher-end jobs in Atlanta and have worked from home since the beginning of the pandemic. The first time incorporating Brookhaven as a city came forward was in 2007. Residents wanted to control the local community’s planning, zoning, land use, police, fire protection, and parks and recreation – rather than having those issues decided by Dekalb County. At that time, the idea didn’t really gain the momentum it needed to succeed. In 2011, the issue of incorporation was revived when state Rep. Mike Jacobs introduced legislation which allowed the creation of the City of Brookhaven. On July 31, 2012, 55 percent of voters chose to incorporate Brookhaven as a city. In December of that same year the first municipal elections were held. Sigman admits it wasn’t what the county wanted. He notes, “Obviously they are not very happy that Brookhaven became a city. However, Brookhaven became a city to provide the level of public safety protection and police visibility that the community wanted, to improve parks to the standard the community wanted, and to take care of streets and other infrastructure the way the community wanted.”