A Crucial Distinction: In light of questions that have been raised over whether or not Selig Enterprises does, in fact, have "vested rights" (see land use attorney Jamie Baker Roskie's article in this week's issue) to build a development, under existing zoning code, that could include a 100,000-square-foot Walmart adjacent to downtown, the Dope did a little asking around. Roskie points out that under Georgia case law, vested rights attach when significant expenditures have been made by the developer based on "assurances by zoning officials" regarding the probable issuance of building permits under existing code. In other words, a developer is not free to spend $250,000 on a project based on its own interpretation of the code, then claim that this expenditure gives them vested rights. Athens-Clarke County Attorney Bill Berryman has expressed the opinion that vested rights are attached to this project. But who has given Selig the required "assurances" that they'll be able to get permits under existing code?
ACC Planning Director Brad Griffin says no such assurances have been made by him or anyone in his department. Mayor Nancy Denson says she hasn't made any either, and never would without going through Griffin's department, and through Berryman as well. Berryman makes it a practice not to debate his legal opinions in public, and declined to elaborate on this one. But if Roskie's reading of the case law holds water-and she's probably the leading expert on land use law in Athens-then commissioners may have some leeway to influence how this development plays out.
Commissioners Kelly Girtz and Mike Hamby both say they've heard the concerns of citizens who object to the size of the space allotted the project's "anchor tenant," and would like to see smaller-square-footage uses in the development. If vested rights aren't attached, the commission could step in, say, to place a square-footage cap on individual retail uses in the area. They'll certainly be paying close attention to the results of a study on how traffic would be impacted by the currently proposed use, which should be available in the coming weeks. Girtz and District 4 Commissioner Alice Kinman have exercised their option to place a 90-day hold on the demolition of eight properties on the tract that are more than 50 years old; that's more likely to buy the commission time to analyze its complete set of options than to seriously contemplate designating the whole area a local historic district. It's reasonable to imagine that commissioners-perhaps a majority of them-would be willing to consider implementing single-use square footage restrictions in the area, if that option is available to them and that's what their constituents say they want.
This Is Timely: The current draft of a long-underway study of the Oak/Oconee corridor by ACC planning staff specifically suggests that the A&D property might be suitable for "an urban grocery"-and also that "[r]etail and office uses [could] be limited to 10,000 sq. ft. per lot, with up to 30,000 sq. ft. permitted for grocery uses" throughout the corridor. Obviously, the addition of a 100,000-square-foot "big box" would seriously compromise the study's objective of helping steer much-needed development in the corridor toward uses that enhance its ability to serve local residents, rather than allowing it to become even more of an urban highway than it is now. Conveniently enough, there's a public meeting coming up at which citizens will be able to share their ideas about the future of the corridor before the study is complete. The meeting is 6–8 p.m. Monday, Dec. 5 at Oconee Street United Methodist Church. Go to the Planning Department page at www.athensclarkecounty.com for more info, and mark it on your calendar-a strong turnout at this event is sure to help shape commissioners' perspectives on the issue.
Finally: Flagpole's Kevan Williams and Katie Goodrum have put together a survey in hopes of initiating a proactive discussion of how development in and around downtown should be envisioned-including on the A&D property. Add your voice to the conversation by going to www.kwiksurveys.com/?u=DowntownAthens.
Dave Marr
news@flagpole.com
Paul Broun, Jr.'s Krazy Korner
Did you hear the one about two persons walking into a bar? Well, OK, so, actually it's a multinational corporation and an eight-cell zygocyte. And it's not a bar, since the blastocyst can't survive outside the fallopian tubes. And they're not walking, since neither possesses a neuromuscular system or anything that could be described as a will or consciousness.
But they are two people, according to Congressman Paul Broun and Republicans who defend so-called "corporate personhood" and who signed on to Broun's "Sanctity of Human Life Act" bill. Broun's bill mimics almost precisely the Mississippi anti-abortion referendum that was recently defeated, with both marking personhood at "fertilization, cloning, or its functional equivalent." Under Broun's proposed federal legislation, the tiniest two-cell blastocyst following fertilization would have "all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood."
Who isn't a "person" to far-right Republicans these days? Oh, right: those of us who aren't corporations or microscopic collections of cells used to exert sexist, theocratic power. The rest of us are falling into a sort of second-class citizenship to Broun's more favored "persons." We're not quite as human, not quite as important to Broun as his precious collections of legal paperwork and cells. Once you're born, you're on your own, as far as Broun and many in the GOP are concerned. Infant mortality rates in our country's poor communities rival that of third world countries. Nearly one in four American children lives in poverty. And it's getting worse by the day. Good thing Broun is focusing on the important stuff. [Matthew Pulver]
