Eastside Story

Back to the Polls

originally published March 7, 2007

With their six-week special election sprint more than half over, the two candidates for the District 8 seat on the Athens-Clarke County commission (recently vacated mysteriously by States McCarter) have so far avoided any type of West Side Story -style turf war dividing the Eastside electorate. Although insurance agency owner David Hamilton is the newly-elected president of the Cedar Creek Civic Association and his opponent, UGA professor Andy Herod, is president (since 2003) of the Green Acres-Crestwood Community Association, sources report that each man’s yard signs have already invaded the other’s neighborhood: an official sign that the campaign is not shaping up like a Sharks vs. Jets brawl. On the other hand, the Mar. 3 endorsement of David Hamilton by McCarter and his predecessor on the commission, Ken Jordan, ought to add some definition to the political dividing lines in the race.

The short timeframe created by the timing of McCarter’s resignation (early enough for a Mar. 20 special election date, but late enough to leave only six weeks to campaign) left both candidates with the challenge of publicly distinguishing themselves from one another quickly. Both men are tuned in to various county-wide issues that are brought into distinct focus on the Eastside: growth and development, traffic and transportation, environmental protection and neighborhood vitality. Both can boast experience with local government and neighborhood issues, and both seem to see growth management strategies as the key to the future of the 8th District.

But the endorsement by McCarter, who disappeared after his resignation and still can’t be reached by Flagpole , might be taken by voters as a clue to what direction Hamilton - who’s so far been less specific on issues than his opponent - may take. Herod, who tends to speak in firmer terms on what his policy objectives would be if elected, also has stronger progressive political credentials than the Rotarian Hamilton, an Augusta native whose youth (he’s only 30) is perhaps balanced by the traditional-looking fireside photo found on his website. Hamilton’s personal story of why he lives in Athens, however, lines up with that of any other resident who stayed here after college more or less because he could play in a band (Posh Toner, in this case) and still get by. Now that he’s settled down, Hamilton says he’s interested in “a long-range vision for what the citizens of Athens-Clarke County want this community to be. I want us to start thinking 30 to 40 years out.” Herod, for his part, is a political geographer originally from London, England, with a family history of community activism going back to his Welsh steelworking grandfather. Herod moved to Athens in 1995 after living in Snellville while his wife worked in Atlanta. “One of the things about living in Snellville… I didn’t want Athens to be like that, because I’d experienced it,” he says.

Voters can parse out other specifics for themselves by reading both candidates’answers to the questionnaire provided to them by the Athens Grow Green Coalition, available at www.athensgrowgreen.org. On their candidate scorecards about smart growth and the environment, Grow Green has awarded Herod four stars and given Hamilton two stars. While praising Herod’s experience and his “thorough understanding of local environmental and land use issues,” the group has particular difficulty with Hamilton’s “troubling suggestion that local government should pay landowners when environmental or zoning regulations constrain their property.” Grow Green describes that as “an idea that has had disastrous consequences where it has been attempted.” Discussion is available elsewhere online, too: just two days after McCarter’s announcement, local blogger and Eastsider (and Flagpole food critic) Hillary Brown posted a half-dozen questions about what she sees as citizen concerns specific to the district. Both candidates have responded on her blog (http://antidisingenuous.blogspot.com), as well as on other local blogs and at their own websites. (Hamilton’s site is at www.davidhamilton.us, and Herod’s is at www.voteandyathens.com.) The lazier voter can also find podcast interviews with each candidate at local blog http://safeashouses.blogspot.com, but patience is required if one goes that route, as all told there are two hours of somewhat relaxed chatting about platforms to be heard there.

The deadline to register to vote in the special election has already passed. Advance voting at the ACC Board of Elections office downtown will coincide with UGA’s Spring Break, Monday, Mar. 12 through Friday, Mar. 16, and the special election - in District 8 only - will be held on Tuesday, Mar. 20.

Ben Emanuel

ben@flagpole.com

Barnett Shoals Road

Heading for the Future

originally published March 7, 2007

City Of Lacey, WA

Is Athens ready for a roundabout like this one in Lacey, WA? Residents (and consultants) are saying yes, but the ACC Transportation and Public Works Department is still skeptical.

At a well-attended public meeting Feb. 26, Eastside residents heard the results of future traffic and population estimates for the rural part of Barnett Shoals and Old Lexington roads. Both roads might eventually be widened to three lanes (five lanes for the section of Barnett Shoals between Whitehall and Old Lexington roads), remaining two lanes farther out. Sidewalks and bike lanes are included in the proposal, which is based on likely future traffic if the remaining large land tracts in the area become fully built out under present zoning, a county-hired consultant said. Consultant Dan Dobry told the crowd of about 75 that his firm also estimated the number of cars likely to be driving through the area from Oconee and Oglethorpe counties.

But the proposals “are not set in stone,” Athens-Clarke County (ACC) Transportation Director David Clark told the group, and road widenings are likely years away. At present, money is available only to reconfigure one intersection, and that could be Whitehall at Barnett Shoals, Old Lexington at Barnett Shoals, or even improvements adjacent to Barnett Shoals Elementary School, depending on what ACC Commissioners decide in May. Last year, commissioners reversed themselves on simply putting a stoplight at the Old Lexington intersection, after many residents asked for a more comprehensive look at the area’s traffic problems. Many residents also thought a “roundabout” traffic circle might be a better solution for that intersection. Roundabouts are safer and don’t back up traffic like stoplights do, but Clark told residents at an October meeting that Georgia drivers aren’t used to using them.

Still, he forwarded the suggestion to county consultants, along with other suggestions from the public, like looking at the twice-daily traffic tie-ups at Barnett Shoals Elementary. The consultants liked the roundabout idea, but Clark said his department isn’t recommending it because, while it would work “perfectly fine” now, a single-lane roundabout might not be able to handle the doubled amount of traffic generated in 15 years, and a two-lane roundabout would be too complicated for drivers. Clark’s proposal is to change the angled intersection to a squared “T”(which would reduce rear-end collisions) and install a stoplight. DeKalb County has a single-lane roundabout now, and according to a consultant at the meeting, Cherokee County has three of them. Towns like Blairsville and Ellijay have even modified their traditional courthouse squares to create free-flowing roundabout traffic.

Clark said in response to a question that his department had not considered flattening the hilly intersection, where drivers “stop abruptly because they can’t see,” resident Bill Paul said. Clark also said that a stoplight will eventually be needed also on Barnett Shoals Road at Sorensen Ridge Drive. The future traffic analysis didn’t consider the effects of adding bus service to the area, and some residents at the meeting thought the proposals ignored residents’desire to maintain the rural flavor. “All of it is not consistent with the things we have lobbied for the last four years - which is to retain the rural character of Barnett Shoals Road,” Paul said. Clark countered that the road will remain two lanes beyond Red Fox Run. And, he said, “we’re working with the school district right now” to design a single entrance to Barnett Shoals Elementary with adjacent turn lanes. Written public comments will be accepted on the proposals through Mar. 9, Clark said; information is available at www.athensclarkecounty.com/publicworks.

John Huie

jphuie@athens.net

UGA Downtown

A Shift in Reactions

originally published March 7, 2007

News in late February that UGA’s graduate school will soon move its offices to the Michael Brothers Building downtown seems to have aroused little interest among downtown businesspeople, but the unremarkableness of the fact is itself perhaps remarkable, given that just 20 years ago, a sort of “gentleman’s agreement” kept all University offices south of Broad Street. So says, among others, head University Architect Danny Sniff, who came to UGA in 1987 and has seen the University’s relationship with downtown change over the years as Athens’downtown itself has changed. Longtime downtown business owner Rusty Heery has a similar recollection. “It was kind of an unwritten rule that they didn’t cross Broad,” Heery says.

The late '80s, however, were the tail-end of an era when downtown Athens was, commercially speaking, something of a “dead zone,” in Sniff’s words. Georgia Square Mall and other sprawl-inducing commercial areas had pulled businesses away from downtown, and the resurgence of retail, commercial, and residential success downtown hadn’t yet taken hold. Sniff recalls that his first year at UGA saw administrators - in need of temporary offices to hold workers displaced by asbestos clean-up in Aderhold Hall - looking at ex-retail space on the corner of Thomas and Washington streets (where the new Hilton Garden Inn stands now). The plan was to run UGA buses down Clayton Street to get employees to the main campus. “People just got scared to death of it,” he recalls. “A lot of the business owners complained, and could easily see the University gobbling up downtown.” Over time, downtown revived and became more stable, supporting the healthy mix of businesses it does today. Along with various other employers, UGA became interested in unoccupied upper floors for office space. And now? “I think attitudes have changed a little bit,” Heery says. “I think the fact that they’re willing to pay pretty good rent money has changed a lot of people’s minds on that.” Annette Nelson, who with her husband Scott owns the Michael Brothers Building on Clayton between Jackson and Wall streets, agrees with that assessment, as well as the fact that retailers like Heery are glad to have office workers downtown during the day - spending their lunch hours at downtown restaurants and perhaps shopping - no matter who they work for. (Nelson points out that nearby UGA parking spaces are a plus, too.) But, Heery says, “People are still a little sensitive to it, I think.” Other factors, however, like the typically long-term nature of UGA leases, are helping allay landlords’sensitivity, at least. UGA currently leases office space in seven buildings downtown, from historic properties like the Franklin House to small, nondescript buildings on Lumpkin Street and Hancock Avenue, to high-rises like the Bank of America building (on the corner of Lumpkin and Clayton), where six of nine floors house UGA employees. The “Fred Building” on College Avenue between Clayton and Washington, formerly known as the Commerce Building and before that as the Southern Mutual Building, houses UGA’s Chief Information Officer and the independent UGA Real Estate Foundation, the group that purchases new property for the University.

The fall of 2003 saw the Real Estate Foundation somewhat interested in actually buying that building, which was in fact soon purchased by local businessman and property mogul Fred Moorman. “We had an interest in it, but we didn’t pursue it,” explains Pat Allen, UGA’s Director of Community Relations. “There was some push-back from the community,” he recalls. UGA-owned property, after all, is a different proposition altogether from UGA-leased property because the school isn’t obliged to pay local property taxes (although, Allen notes, the Real Estate Foundation has made the choice to keep a good bit of recently-purchased property on the local tax digest until it’s built out, alleviating one major area of concern about UGA land ownership). Heery, for his part, remembers the downtown rumor mill - and the chatter about the Commerce Building that autumn - with a good-natured chuckle: “There was speculation a couple years ago, or maybe more… I think Fred outbid ’em.”

Ben Emanuel

ben@flagpole.com