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Linwood Park residents urge pause to proposed five‑home development and road connection
Summary
Residents of Linwood Park told the Brookhaven City Council they were not adequately notified of a private developer’s plan to build about five homes and to connect Divine Circle with Mendel, and they urged officials to pause the plan and provide a forum for meaningful community input ahead of a Board of Appeals hearing.
Residents of Linwood Park pressed the Brookhaven City Council during public comment to halt a private development project that would add roughly five houses and connect two dead‑end streets, a change neighbors say would increase traffic, require large amounts of backfill and worsen stormwater risks.
"We would love to open communication with the city and just kind of pause on any really quick movements forward," said Aliyah Morin, who said she was speaking for "about 40 or 50 families" on Divine Circle and Mendel. Morin said neighbors discovered the project after seeing a variance sign and that only one household had received notice that did not mention a new road.
Jonathan Bird, another nearby resident, said he found out about the plan in the last two weeks and urged more environmental study, noting a "30‑foot delta between the soccer field and where the drop off is going into the stream buffers" that would require "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dump truckloads of backfill." He told the council he expects a large turnout at the Board of Appeals hearing scheduled for Sept. 17.
Yolanda Luper, who identified herself as living near the Linwood Park pool, asked the mayor how residents could be heard and pressed that the neighborhood was not included in earlier decisions that removed the road from a prior plan. "I'm here to ask you to stop the plan unless and until the community's been heard," she said.
Laurie Scholes, also speaking from Divine Circle, urged the council to revisit a cul‑de‑sac option that neighbors say originally satisfied accessibility and fire marshal concerns.
City staff did not take immediate action during the meeting on the development itself; the public comment period closed after speakers finished and council moved on with other agenda items. Several residents said they planned to raise the issue at the Board of Appeals hearing and asked the council and staff to provide a clear mechanism for community input.
The council previously opened a separate public hearing earlier in the meeting on a substantial amendment to the city’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) consolidated plan; that hearing addressed fund reallocations and was closed after no speakers came forward on the amendment.
What happens next: residents said a Board of Appeals hearing is scheduled for Sept. 17; the transcript record shows no council vote or formal action on the development during this meeting.
