It appears Brookhaven has a home for its new City Hall.
The MARTA board voted Thursday afternoon to allow the north DeKalb County city to build a City Hall at the Brookhaven-Oglethorpe station. Since train stations are owned by MARTA, local governments need to enter into ground lease agreements for development projects on those properties.
No other details on the development were released, but Brookhaven Mayor John Ernst told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that this deal has been years in the making.
“This agreement is the culmination of a dialog which has been ongoing for several years with MARTA to create a transit-friendly live-work-play community that meets the current and future lifestyle needs of its residents,” Ernst said in an emailed statement. “This is a great opportunity to establish a transit-supportive, walkable, active City Hall that identifies Brookhaven as a forward-thinking City.”
The Brookhaven City Council will consider its own resolution Tuesday, which Ernst said he’s confident will be approved. That resolution, which has not been publicly released, should include more details on the proposed City Hall development, MARTA’s spokeswoman said.
The current City Hall in Brookhaven, which was founded in 2012, is located in a rental space off Peachtree Road. But city leadership has considered building a new one at multiple locations over the past few years.
Brookhaven Park was previously listed as a possibility, but the city pledged against doing when it bought the full park from DeKalb County earlier this year. The city’s MARTA station was also highlighted as a possibility in past comprehensive plans.
The 15-acre train station has been the focus of large projects that never came to fruition. In 2017, MARTA canceled a $200 million development at the station due to several disagreements. The project would have transformed the station’s parking lots into Brookhaven’s city center, including shops, offices, a hotel, condos, apartments and a food market.
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