Immediately after being elected, Mayor Ernst led the city council in instituting a 6-month moratorium on high density development to allow for a character area study driven by citizen input. This addendum to the comprehensive plan would drive the multi-year zoning code re-write. He instituted another moratorium in 2018, ensuring development along Buford Highway would follow community guidelines for increased greenspace and affordability and implemented the Buford Highway Overlay.

During his term, thousands of apartments have been requested by developers — city council has only approved 137 net new apartments mainly along corridors where infrastructure can support development such as Buford Highway and Clairmont Road, including 77 for an assisted living facility. 1,465 requested apartments have either been rejected or withdrawn mostly along busy Peachtree Road and Dresden Drive.He rejected a poorly conceived development at the MARTA Brookhaven-Oglethorpe station which did not make the necessary traffic or sewer improvements.

The Overlay and the zoning code re-write initiated by Mayor Ernst focused on livability, affordability, and connectivity. When Brookhaven lost in the Georgia Supreme court to deny the development at the former Hastings nursery, it became clear developers would be able to build what was approved by DeKalb County in 2005 along Peachtree Road.  Mayor Ernst had the foresight to implement smart development with the overlay re-write. Density was curbed indirectly with tough greenspace requirements, increased setbacks near residential properties, unit size minimums and 10% affordable units, and requiring paths and sidewalks where necessary.

He stood up to powerful interests such as Children’s Healthcare, negotiating a community investment agreement providing $46 million in benefits to the community.  The previous administration could only manage $342,500. Traffic will be improved when CHOA pays $12 million for I-85 bridge improvements (no funding provided by Brookhaven). Sewer lines will be upgraded for the entire area by CHOA. CHOA has paid $11 million towards the construction of the Peachtree Creek Greenway as well as a path to it from their campus for the residents of Brookhaven.

He also held fast to the city’s commitment to affordable housing and refused to incentivize affordable housing unless it provided real affordability to Buford Highway residents rather than using the Atlanta average for the Bramblewood development. The mayor has focused his efforts to ensure re-zonings were not approved without substantial investments in the community such as usable neighborhood parks, intersection improvements to improve traffic, sewer infrastructure (sewers are controlled by DeKalb County) and affordability.

When Mayor Ernst took office in 2015, the city budget was in disarray. He worked to restructure and reorganized the city to provide more effective and efficient city services while improving the City’s communication with residents. The City received a Certificate in Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association in 2018 for its new budgeting efforts.

Furthermore, when he was elected, the City’s reserve funds were at 8.5%.  During his term, he has been able to meet and exceed appropriate budgetary reserves for the first time in the City’s history; currently 35% of budget in reserves. In 2018, the City received a double Triple-A bond ratings from both rating agencies; one of only 5 cities in GA to receive this rating.

Mayor Ernst established a grants program to seek additional revenue sources from federal, state and regional agencies as well as private-public partnerships. To date, the City of Brookhaven has been awarded more than $30 million in grants to address road improvements, stormwater infrastructure improvements and purchases of greenspace and to build our Peachtree Creek Greenway. 

Additional budgetary items of note:

• Head count for all budgets approved under Mayor Ernst’s administration has stayed consistent at 132.
• Tourist expenditures (magazine advertisements, event sponsorship, Explore Brookhaven logo, etc) are done by the Convention and Visitors bureau (CVB), a separate entity NOT funded with property taxes but through the state-established hotel motel tax that is required by every city in Georgia. Each hotel in Brookhaven collects an 8% hotel motel tax.  3.5% goes to the CVB to pay for marketing such as this, 3% goes directly to the city general fund for tax relief, and the remaining 1.5% helps fund the Peachtree Creek Greenway.  We are required by state law to give the 3.5% to the CVB for tourism marketing. If Brookhaven didn’t collect this tax from visitors, $1.5 million a year would be gone and we would have to make it up by raising property taxes.
• The overall 2020 budget proposed sees an 11% reduction in general fund expenditures.
• $375,000 was not the actual cost of the new Skyland Park restroom, but the initial opinion of probable cost. The actual cost was $230,000 at Skyland Park that was paid for by DeKalb County Schools, in a land deal Mayor Ernst negotiated which donated city land for a new school to address overcrowding in our schools and the school system paid for Brookhaven’s Skyland Park (with 2 dog parks, walking paths and sport facilities) and additional funding for Brookhaven’s Ashford Forest Preserve purchase (33 acres of greenspace near PDK airport).  For all other city parks restroom facilities, the citizen oversight committee is looking to value engineer to drive costs down further while maintaining sustainability and continuity.
• The millage rate is the lowest in the county and homeowners will receive a city tax cut if citizens vote on the doubling of the homestead exemption on the November 5^th ballot; 86% of qualifying seniors and the disabled will not pay city property taxes.

By acquiring 4 new parks and purchasing over 55 acres of greenspace in a fiscally responsible manner, the City of Brookhaven has saved more trees and help preserve our environment. Acquiring land for public use is an effective way to ensure our tree canopy remains robust.

After years of stalls, Mayor Ernst was able to acquire the land and find matching federal, regional and private-public partnerships to not only plan the Peachtree Creek Greenway but to build the 1st mile of this pathway that will allow residents and visitors to walk and bike on a 3 mile path that will connect to other regional multi-use nature paths, such as the Atlanta Beltline and PATH 400.

Recently, City Council approved a TreesAtlanta “Front Yard Tree” program so property owners can have TreesAtlanta plant high quality, native trees in their front yard at little or no cost to residents.

Four years ago, with input from concerned citizens, the City of Brookhaven updated our tree ordinance, which has grown our tree canopy from 50% to 53.6% from 2012- 2016. However, there is more work to be done. Since 2018, Mayor John Ernst has been working with key stakeholders and the Brookhaven Tree Conservancy to evaluate and craft a new ordinance to make improvements while protecting property rights. Simply amending the current code leaves Brookhaven vulnerable to lawsuits and would not being fully integrated into other ordinances, such as stormwater and zoning. We are working towards a stronger tree ordinance that will stand up in court and will take into account:

• saving high quality, old growth trees with new tools (such as a tree matrix),
• securing a sustainable tree footprint (our environment and trees are healthy when trees are group together),
• creating more effective deterrents for illegal tree cutting or developers just paying into the tree fund instead of preserving viable trees, and
• developing a community education program.

These strategies have yet to be implemented in Georgia (and most likely the country) and could be a model for municipal tree ordinances nationwide. In order to make lasting, impactful change, these revisions cannot be taken lightly, quickly, or without vigorous public debate.

In addition, under Mayor John Ernst’s administration, our police department has implemented the following innovative programs:

• License Plate Reader (LPR) pilot program: 44 LPRs installed across the City have resulted in 53 arrests and 25 recovered stolen vehicles within the first six months of installation in 2019.
• Established the Brookhaven Police Department’s “Operation Plugged In” program, a police/community video partnership that operates on a voluntary basis with homeowners, neighborhoods and business owners who own private video security systems that record public areas such as roads, parking lots and sidewalks.
• Developed the Police Citizen’s Academy program to create responsible, well-informed citizens in both English and Spanish-speaking communities about the Brookhaven Police Department’s methods and goals.
• Acquired state-of-the-art FARO Crime-Scene 3D Imaging – a camera system, which provides high-resolution digital evidence collection abilities for Detectives and Crime-Scene Investigators.

Using additional revenue from Emory Healthcare and the Atlanta Hawks new health and training campus at Executive Park, the City was able to the purchase of the former QT site on Buford Highway at North Cliff Valley Way, and through an agreement with the DeKalb County Fire and Rescue Department, to post three ambulances there. This ambulance station will improve emergency medical services response times within Brookhaven. 

By state law, cities are only required to inspect its stormwater infrastructure every five years; cities are not required to make any improvements.

Mayor John Ernst took the lead to not only inspect but to fast track stormwater infrastructure improvement and maintenance projects to prevent flooding and erosion happening across the City. As of September 30, 2019, 134 (83 percent) of the 162 high priority stormwater structures were completed, and 70 (80 percent) of the 88 high priority conveyances were completed. The City of Brookhaven is on track to ensure more improvement and maintenance projects are scheduled and earmarked over the next couple of years.

The Mayor also led the city to partner with the DeKalb County School District and the Ashford Park Elementary School Foundation to install the City’s first turf field at Ashford Park Elementary School, which will be available for public use.

The Mayor will also continue implementing projects laid out in various transit studies such as the Bike-Ped Plan, Ashford-Dunwoody Corridor Plan and the North Druid Hills Traffic Study to improve the efficiency of our intersections and connectivity.

Lastly, he implemented a traffic calming measure program so neighborhoods can reduce commuter cut-through traffic and reduce speeds on residential roads. Learn more about the program here.

The value of your property for purposes of city taxes is frozen at the time of incorporation or at the time you homesteaded. You pay the same amount of city taxes based off that value year over year. City taxes are only 6.8% of your bill. A person living in Brookhaven with a $551,000 value but has lived here since the incorporation when the house was valued at $402,000 pays taxes based off the $402,000 value. Therefore, when the homestead doubles, they would be getting approx.  21% decrease in their city taxes. With the new homestead exemption(s), your city bill will be lower in real dollars next year. 86% of seniors and the disabled who qualify will not pay any city taxes.

Why not just decrease the millage rate?

The millage rate can be adjusted year after year at the discretion of Council whereas doubling the homestead exemption is systematic, permanent tax relief for homeowners. Furthermore, decreasing the millage rate would discount taxes for commercial properties, ultimately putting more tax burden on homeowners. Moving forward, now that proper reserves are established, it will be up to the council whether to lower the millage rate or apply any surpluses to council priorities such intersection improvements for traffic mitigation or additional storm-water improvement projects.