Inside
Brookhaven Reporter
Perimeter Business
Crash pad
Councilman helps shelter pets MAKING A DIFFERENCE 14
Shine on
www.ReporterNewspapers.net
Brightest are recognized
FEB. 20 — MARCH. 5, 2015 • VOL. 9 — NO. 4
STAR STUDENTS 16-17
PAGES 7-11
County considering trimming home garbage pickups BY JOE EARLE
joeearle@reporternewspapers.net
Dance with me, Daddy PHOTOS BY PHIL MOSIER
The Lynwood Park Community Center hosted its first ever Valentine’s Daddy-Daughter Dance on Feb. 13. Above, Derek Mueller, and daughter Madison, 7, get into the swing of things. Above, right, Brookhaven Police Officer Jeffrey Gant and daughter Lola, 4, take a breather. See more photos on page 2.
DeKalb County officials are considering major changes in how and how often county workers pick up residential garbage. Interim DeKalb CEO Lee May has proposed the county cut garbage pickups from two days a week to one and that county sanitation workers pick up yard waste and recycling on the same day they collect garbage. The change, intended to save money, will mean garbage trucks will come to residents’ homes once a week instead of four times a week. The county needs to make the change to cut costs, he said. “In DeKalb County, we have been delivering a Rolls-Royce level of service, but you all have been paying a Ford Focus rate,” May told about 40 people at Brookhaven City Hall. Residents now pay about $265 a year for garbage pickup, May said. If the county adopts the new pickup plan, it will not have to raise the fee, he said. May discussed the garbage collection plan with residents at meetings in Dunwoody Feb. 5 and Brookhaven on Feb. 17. He said he has recommended that the DeKalb County Commission adopt the new garbage pickup schedule. SEE COUNTY, PAGE 20
Efforts continue to preserve city’s trees BY ANN MARIE QUILL
annmariequill@reporternewspapers.net
As the city of Brookhaven works to tweak its tree ordinance amid criticism that the present law is too lenient on developers, the owners of a four-house project under way in Historic Brookhaven say they are attempting to preserve as many trees as possible in their development. A single house once sat on the 3.4-acre lot at 3005 Mabry Road, owned by the same family since 1927. The property was acquired in September by developers Mike Elliot and Melissa Bryson, both Historic Brookhaven residents. “We could have squeezed in a lot more homes, but we’re just doing four,” Bryson said. Bryson and Elliot say they are developing the property with no requests for rezoning or variances. The property, which they have named Brookhaven Forest, is zoned for R-100, which requires .35-
acre minimum lot sizes, but their plans call for .55 acres to more than an acre for each of the four lots. “We would have been able to squeeze more on, and it would have been a more profitable project, but it didn’t feel right,” Bryson said. “I live one street up and [Elliot lives nearby], and we love this property, and just wanted it to be maintained and look like it should look like since we’re here in the middle of Historic Brookhaven.” The city’s efforts to control tree removal have drawn complaints from residents who say they don’t go far enough. Sally Eppstein started an online petition to save the city’s tree canopy after becoming distressed by what she described as clearcutting on a property along North Druid Hills Road near Roxboro and Goodwin roads. At a recent City Council meeting, she pleaded to preserve old growth trees. SEE EFFORTS, PAGE 5
ANN MARIE QUILL
Melissa Bryson is a developer planning four homes for a 3.4-acre parcel on Mabry Road.