Inside
Brookhaven Reporter
Fall Education Guide
Storytelling
City gathering history COMMUNITY 3
Fleet street
www.ReporterNewspapers.net
There are commuting options
SEPT. 18 — OCT. 1, 2015 • VOL. 7 — NO. 19
COMMENTARY 10
How does my hair look?
Pages 11-27
Peachtree Creek Greenway park moves forward BY JOHN RUCH
johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
PHIL MOSIER
Erin Penn, left, snaps a photo of her daughter Lily, 5, and their pup “Laney,” during “Doggy Diving Day” at Murphey Candler Pool on Sept. 13. The special event allowed dogs to splash around without their owners during the pool’s last open day of the season. See additional photos on page 35.
After two years of effort, the Peachtree Creek Greenway at Brookhaven Park is moving quickly from an idea to a plan. Brookhaven City Council on Sept. 8 formally declared its intent to create the park and paved trail along the north fork of the Peachtree Creek, which legally sets the stage for making deals to assemble the park from land now largely held by private owners. “It’s going to be a statement park,” said Councilman Joe Gebbia, a champion of the Greenway, which he and others liken to the Atlanta BeltLine. The first public meeting called by consultants who aim to have a Greenway master plan completed by the new year is likely to be scheduled by early October. Brookhaven plans on taking the lead on what could become a 12-mile Greenway along the entire north fork of Peachtree Creek, which runs from Mercer University in unincorporated DeKalb County to near the new PATH400 trail in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood. “Our commitment is not just to the [Brookhaven] city limits,” said Betsy Eggers, board chair of the North Fork Connectors, a nonprofit group that first envisioned SEE PEACHTREE, PAGE 34
MARTA station redevelopment project to start in 2017 BY JOHN RUCH
johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
MARTA on Sept. 3 named the developers for its transitoriented redevelopments at the Brookhaven/Oglethorpe and Chamblee stations. Construction at Brookhaven is slated to start in summer 2017. The Brookhaven station project would include housing, restaurants, green spaces—and maybe even a grocery store and a new City Hall, a member of the development team said. Brookhaven City Center Partners was selected as the developer for the Brookhaven station area at Peachtree Road and Dresden Drive. The mixed-use project would begin with 330 apartments, more than 25,000 square feet of retail space and 117,000 square feet of office space, according to a MARTA press release. Future phases could include around 400 more residential units of senior housing and condos along with civic spaces and a hotel. “It’s intended to be a completion of the fabric of what’s going on in Brookhaven,” said Trent Germano, a senior manag-
ing director at Transwestern Development Company, which its teaming with Integral as the Brookhaven City Center Partners. Integral is also on a separate team undertaking the massive redevelopment of the former GM plant farther up the MARTA train’s Gold Line in Doraville. “It’s also about place-making, and we’re very cognizant of that,” Germano said. “The idea is to make it everybody’s space.” The exact mix and types of uses, as well as construction timing, will depend on the market, Germano said. But the overall concept sticks to a 2006 Livable Centers Initiative redevelopment plan for the area. “The plan envisions a highquality, dynamic, mixed-use center that will become a village center and focal point for the Brookhaven community,” that document said. Germano said the developers used the LCI plan as a basis for their own. It includes mid-rise mixed-use buildings, an afSEE MARTA, PAGE 31
SPECIAL
Brookhaven MARTA station redevelopment would include housing, restaurants and green space.