reporternewspapers.net
FEBRUARY 2021 • VOL. 13 — NO. 2
Brookhaven Reporter
SUMMER CAMPS
1
Calling All Campers! P18 and 19
LaVista Park and ‘Innovation District’ get development protections
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
General Muir comes to City Springs P7
AUTHOR Q&A
Celebrating Civil Rights
Meet the mothers of Civil Rights icons
BY SAMMIE PURCELL
P17
PHIL MOSIER
WORTH KNOWING
Locals donate plasma for COVID battle
Local resident Aaliyah Gurthrie, joined by dog Louie, listens to former DeKalb County CEO Liane Levetan give the keynote speech at city’s fifth annual MLK Day Dinner Jan. 18. The dinner was held as a pandemic drive-in event at the Brookhaven/Oglethorpe MARTA Station rather than its traditional home in the city’s historically Black Lynwood Park neighborhood. It was the first MLK Dinner following last year’s historic Black Lives Matter protests, as a result of which the city agreed to install historical markers in Lynwood Park.
City sues county over disputed Brookhaven Park land
P12
BY BOB PEPALIS
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The city has filed a lawsuit seeking to make DeKalb County transfer ownership of the eastern portion of Brookhaven Park to the city. But a county commissioner says the land -- long pegged as a disputed site for a new branch library -- has never been part of the park. The city claims in its suit, filed on Jan. 11
in DeKalb Superior Court, that the entire 21acre property made up Brookhaven Park when the city incorporated in 2012, but the county only sold the western portion of the park to the city in 2017. The cost was $922, based on a state law that set the price for transferring parkland to newly incorporated cities at $100 per acre. But DeKalb County Commissioner Jeff See CITY on page 22
Brookhaven’s booming new medical area has a new name -- Briar Hills Innovation District -- and is joining newly annexed LaVista Park under the protection of development standards intended to preserve their unique characters. The City Council Jan. 26 adopted the “Gateway South” character area study for both areas. The Innovation District, at North Druid Hills Road and I-85, includes Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s hospital center and Emory Healthcare’s massive mixeduse redevelopment of Executive Park. The neighborhood of LaVista Park, just to the south, requested annexation into Brookhaven in late 2019, mainly in response to the Children’s Healthcare and Emory developments and expansions. The community was annexed in December of that same year, adding around 601 single-family residences to the city. The Gateway South project team asked community members to help name the two areas. The community supported keeping the name LaVista Park. “Briar Hills Innovation District” was put for as an option and ultimately decided on after online discussion showed disagreement around using the words “healthcare” or “medical” in the name. Public engagement meetings were held, see LAVISTA on page 22
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