Brookhaven residents will decide next month whether a multi-million dollar overhaul of the city’s parks is worth paying more in property taxes.
A referendum on a $40 million bond to be used for park improvements is included on the Nov. 6 ballot. If approved, city officials say, the average homeowner would pay about $100 more.
In return, six of the city's parks would get new or upgraded amenities like pools, community centers and mixed-use trails. Also security will be enhanced and wi-fi added at all 11 parks.
Rebecca Chase Williams, who served as one of Brookhaven’s first city council members and later as mayor, said the parks bond is the next step to update a system that had been neglected for decades by DeKalb County.
“It’s a great investment in our city,” she said. “Who doesn’t want to live in a city with great parks?”
Williams is co-chair of Yes for Brookhaven Parks, an organization that formed to back the referendum. But an opposition campaign has also surfaced.
Signs advertising the website VoteNoParkBond.com have appeared on busy roads in Brookhaven. Visitors to that site find a critique of overall costs and the project list. It also questions whether there's enough oversight of the city's spending.
No one has publicly taken credit for the anti-referendum website, but additional criticism has come from an unlikely source.
Sue Binkert, chairwoman of Brookhaven’s Parks and Recreation Coalition, spent five years working on the $80 million parks master plan and advocating for the parks system. But she will be voting against the bond and is encouraging neighbors to do the same.
“We know that a bond will be necessary at some point to move the master plans forward,” Binkert said. “But we want to ensure the bond is well vetted, is very transparent to all citizens (and) has had a real opportunity to work through some of the challenges that exist in this particular bond.”
For example, Binkert is concerned that the City Council added projects to be funded by the bond that weren't on PARC's priority list. PARC's projects, pulled from the city's master plan, would have totaled $26.7 million. Among the City Council's additions are more than $3 million for a lazy river and lap pool at Lynwood Park and a new boardwalk at Murphey Candler Park, Brookhaven's largest.
Binkert also thinks the city should find another source of revenue to pay for the improvements instead of relying on property taxes.
Williams said the final project list changed because City Council members wanted to make sure the entire city benefited from bond funding. She pointed out that, even at $40 million, only half of the city’s $80 million parks master plan is funded.
Although the bond will increase property taxes if approved, city leaders are hopeful that residents will sign off since most of them saw their tax bills go down by hundreds of dollars this year. In two years, bills are expected to decrease another $69 on average when an existing DeKalb parks bond is paid off.
Some of the projects that would be financed under the new bond are:
- Briarwood Park, $7 million for a pool, renovating the community center, new trails and renovated parking.
- Brookhaven Park, $7.8 million for multi-purpose fields, a new playground, trails and more restrooms.
- Lynwood Park, $10.8 million for a new pool, pavilion and parking renovations.
- Murphey Candler Park, $7.9 million for a community building, trail, dredging of the lake and lakeside boardwalk.
- Ashford Park, $2.2 million for improvements that include a new splash pad and picnic area.
- Blackburn Park, $812, 500 for fencing and parking renovations.
- Security and invasive plant removal, $1.2 million.
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