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COMMUNITY
Zoning boards on the way
for Brookhaven
BI MELISSA WEINMAN
melissaweinman@reporternewspapers.net
When the Brookhaven City Council
meets Feb. 12, they will be doing dou
ble duty.
Brookhaven has not yet appointed a
Zoning Board of Appeals, so the City
Council will act in that capacity to hear
several residential variance applications
being sought within the city limits. City
Council will hold its regular meeting
and then adjourn to hold a separate zon
ing meeting.
The schedule is only temporary
though. Mayor J. Max Davis said he has
a list of nominees and is close to approv
ing the final members for the Zoning
Board of Appeals.
“We will have it finalized by the
[Feb.] 12th, hopefully, and they will
start working after that,” Davis said.
Davis said there will be seven mem
bers on the Zoning Board of Appeals.
“They are people throughout the city
who have in one way or another dem
onstrated some volunteerism in the city
and also got some recommendation
from council.”
Davis said some were nominated be
cause of their professional expertise that
relates to zoning and development.
“We want to have a mixture of some
experts, and people who are just citi
zens and want to do what’s best for their
community,” Davis said.
Davis will appoint the members of
the Zoning Board of Appeals, and City
Council will vote to approve the board.
Interim City Manager Marie Garrett
said the Zoning Board of Appeals does
have authority to make binding decisions.
“Their responsibility is to review re
quests of variances to zoning ordinances
and/or development regulations of the
city,” Garrett said.
For example, Garrett said builders of
ten realize they can’t meet a city’s required
setback distance because of physical limi
tations on their property. “They come be
fore the ZBA and present their case and
what their hardship is,” Garrett said.
The Zoning Board of Appeals has the
authority to make a decision on wheth
er or not to grant a variance to the city’s
zoning code.
“[They] make a decision and that
decision is final. If that applicant is ag
grieved by that decision, they file an ap
peal with Superior Court,” Garrett said.
Davis is also in the process of ap
pointing a seven-member planning
commission.
The main purpose of a planning com
mission is to serve as an advisory board
for the City Council when it comes to
zoning matters.
“Their principal duty is to review ap
plications for rezoning and master plans,
and make recommendations to the may
or and council,” Garrett said.
Unlike the Zoning Board of Appeals,
the Planning Commission does not have
“We want to have a
mixture of some
experts, and people who
are just citizens and
want to do what’s best
for their community.”
-J. MAX DAVIS
BROOKHAVEN MAYOR
authority to make decisions. The Plan
ning Board may instead make recom
mendations about an application, such
as approve, deny, or approve with condi
tions, Garrett said.
“Council takes that under advise
ment and then makes their decisions,”
Garrett said.
City Council voted to adopt the zon
ing code of DeKalb County, so the pro
cess will be almost exactly the same as it
is currently in DeKalb. The main differ-
ece, said Councilwoman Rebecca Chase
Williams, is that Brookhaven will not
have a community council.
Because DeKalb is such a large coun
ty, in each county commission district
an advisory board called a communtiy
council hears applications before they
advance to the county-wide planning
commission.
“Our thinking was that given the
fact that we’ve gone from a huge coun
ty to a city of 50,000, the government
was already so much closer to the peo
ple that we could eliminate that step. It
eliminates an entire month in the zon
ing process so it speeds it up a bit,” Wil
liams said.
“Instead of taking a full three-month
cycle, it’s more like a two-month cycle.
But it’s our intent for the public to be
notified and involved in the process.
Our purpose was not to eliminate [the
community council] for public hearing
purposes, but to move it along.”
Williams, who served on the DeKalb
Zoning Board of Appeals before being
elected to the Brookhaven City Coun
cil, said while she believes zoning will
always be controversial, she is hopeful
people will find it easy to participate in
the new city’s zoning process.
“Zoning was a big reason people vot
ed for cityhood, wanting to have more
local control of zoning, and having de
cisions made closer to home by peo
ple who live in the community and are
more familiar with the needs and desires
of the area. I think all of that will hap
pen and I think it will be a great thing,”
Williams said.
2 | FEB.8 — FEB.21,2013 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net
BK
