News & Views You Can Use
Aug 30, 2000
City Pages
Development Plan Stirs Opposition
Residents of neighborhoods surrounding Barnett Shoals Elementary School met on Thursday, August 24 to review the latest version of a planned development on 56 acres of land between the school and the Snapfinger subdivision. The property encompasses acres of scenic pasture surrounded by stands of aged trees. The rear edge of the parcel slopes down to a creek bed. Residents of Snapfinger, Chamberlin and Brookstone subdivisions have grown accustomed to this pastoral landscape, and are sensitive to owner Charles Floyd's plans to develop it. Last year, they successfully fought Floyd's plans for a retirement community there, fearing, among other things, pollution from parking lot runoff and the potential of unsafe elderly drivers on streets their children walk to school. Since then, Floyd, who has lived on the property since 1966, has proposed several versions of a high-density residential development for the residents' approval, the most recent one containing 125 units. Floyd is asking the Planning Commission to rezone his parcel from RS-20 to RS-15, and is seeking a planned development waiver, allowing for townhouses and reduced setbacks, which are not normally permitted in RS-15 zones.
In exchange for the increased density, Floyd has agreed to commit over 23 acres, most of it in contiguous green space around the edge of the property, to a permanent conservation easement with The Athens Land Trust. Floyd's latest plan comes after months of sometimes bitter negotiations with area residents, some of whom have complained that Floyd has threatened to clear-cut the land for timber if they refuse to support his rezoning effort. They also say he once presented a plan to them that they generally accepted, then changed parts of it before submitting it to city planners. And at this point, Floyd has not made his asking price known to residents who might consider pooling their resources to purchase the land.
Though Athens-Clarke County Commissioners Tom Chasteen and Charles Carter were in attendance, the August 24 meeting was cut short when residents learned a member of ACC planning staff, scheduled to address their questions, had been called away on a family emergency. Instead, the group gathered around to examine a topographic map of the acreage, super-imposed with Floyd's latest proposal. Floyd was out of town the night of the meeting. Most who live in the area seem to accept the fact that the land will be developed, but there is disagreement over which way would be best for their community. "To me 27 extra units are worth the guarantee of the conservation easement," said Snapfinger resident John Olive.
Developed under the current RS-20 designation, the property would accommodate 98 units. Floyd has said development of the land at that density while retaining green space would not be economically feasible. Some, like Diane Teague, who also lives in Snapfinger, feel the RS-15 is a bad idea. "I don't want the density there. I don't want the townhouses," Teague said. "It just gets everything so crammed in and so dense. I want it to be like the surrounding neighborhoods."
Critics of the rezoning cite increased traffic along Barnett Shoals Road as a concern, but they are also worried that a developer might alter the subdivision plans after the land is rezoned and sold. A footnote to this debate is that under the new land use plan, Floyd's land would be zoned RS-25, which would presumably make it more difficult for him to get an RS-15 designation. But given the repeated failure of the Mayor and ACC Commission to enact the plan, that point appears moot. The one thing everyone involved agrees on is that, without the support of his neighbors, Floyd's plan will not go through. What would happen then, for better or worse, is anyone's guess. As of this writing, Floyd's plan was scheduled to go before the Planning Commission on Sept. 7.
ACC Pondering Fate Of "Murmur Trestle"
On September 19, Athens-Clarke County Manager Al Crace will report to the ACC Commission on possible uses for what remains of the Dudley Park rail trestle.
Known worldwide as the trestle featured on the back cover of R.E.M.'s Murmur album, it was one of four rail bridges slated for July demolition by CSX Transportation. Built in the late 19th Century along the rail line to Winterville and beyond, the downtown trestles were part of a 1.9 mile section of track officially abandoned by CSX in 1998. Documents obtained by Flagpole show the ACC government had advance notice of CSX's plan to demolish the trestles. In an executive session on July 5 - after dismantling had begun - the ACC Commission decided, with no public input, not to pursue the purchase of the trestles, clearing the way for demolition to continue (see City Pages, July 19, on-line at flagpole.com). The Commission also resolved that evening to pursue its right to negotiate for the land along the rail line. The government has plans to use the corridor as a Rails to Trails project.
Citizens were shocked to see the historic structures coming down, and protests came in to Mayor Doc Eldridge's office from R.E.M. fans around the world. On July 20, Eldridge authorized a 90-day option to purchase the Dudley Park trestle, which had already been partially demolished.
The government paid CSX Transportation's demolition contractor, Bill's Demolition of Athens, Ohio, $5,000 to leave the Dudley Park trestle as is so that the county could assess it for future use. The other trestles had been destroyed completely by that time (see City Pages, July 26, on-line at flagpole.com). Crace says ACC planning staff, Leisure Services and Transportation and Public Works are studying possible uses for the trestle, as well as the costs involved. "They're all putting together their thoughts, and we'll probably be having a roundtable discussion to finalize the proposals," Crace says. "We'd like to get that done this month, so they [the Commissioners] will have a clear idea what the options are and what are some of the feasible choices."
Crace says an agenda report will be ready by Friday, September 15, and will be presented to the Commission at its agenda setting session the following Tuesday.
"That way by September they'll have some sense of what's being proposed to make up their minds by October," Crace says.
Mike Wharton, Natural Resources Division Administrator of the Leisure Services Department, says he has "not heard any specifics" concerning the government's options for the trestle as of yet, but that he envisions it as part of an east-west connector for the North Oconee River Greenway.
"The idea is beginning to look at literally an alternative transportation system to complement vehicle transportation," Wharton says. "Where the trestles fit in is that is one of the possible routes that would go out to the eastern part of the community." Local alternative transportation advocates have criticized the county government for approaching bicycle and pedestrian paths - and the Greenway in particular - as recreational amenities, rather than as useful, environmentally sound transportation corridors. But Wharton says one of the goals of the Greenway is to move people around town without the use of automobiles.
"You're looking at a five-foot wide [trail] on each side. That's pretty substantial," says Wharton. "Can you race down it, can you take clusters of bicycles at one time? No. But then you can't do that with motorcycles [on roads] either." "Certainly down the road having that railroad roadbed would provide a tremendous link to the east-west with the reconstruction or addition of trestles," Wharton says.
CSX's initial asking price for the land along the rail line - approximately 32.5 acres - was $4.7 million. A July 7 Athens Daily News article quoted Mayor Eldridge as saying that, if it acquires the right of way, the county plans to replace the downed trestles with prefabricated steel structures "at a much lower cost." "It's a matter of what they want to do," says Crace. "Whatever they'd like to do we can put it together." (BA)
Mall Theater Closes; Carmike 12 "As Usual"
Just over two weeks after Carmike Cinemas, Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, one of its two Athens theaters has closed its doors. The Georgia Square 4, located inside Georgia Square Mall, shut down on August 24. Once Carmike's premier location in Athens, the theater switched to showing second-run movies at discount rates when the new Carmike 12 opened on Lexington Road. Carmike Cinemas filed for bankruptcy on August 8. In recent years the Columbus, GA-based company took on substantial debt in order to build new theaters and upgrade existing ones, with features such as stadium seating and new projection and sound systems.
The bankruptcy filing came after Carmike missed a $9 million payment to its creditors. In a letter to shareholders accompanying Carmike's 1999 annual report, President and CEO Michael W. Patrick outlined the chain's plans to open 88 new screens and retrofit 10 others in 2000. As of December 31, 1999, Carmike had a total of 2,848 screens in 36 states. Founded in 1982, the company employed just over 11,000 people at the end of last year.
Patrick, who drew $698,000 in salary and bonuses in 1999, acknowledged the company's financial problems in the letter, pointing out that capital expenditures for 2000 would be down by almost $150 million. "Our focus for the year 2000 is to generate positive free cash flow for debt reductions," Patrick wrote. "We plan to accomplish this through improved operating performance, theater closures from natural attrition and targeted early closures..." Rumors of the Georgia Square theater's demise have circulated since the opening of the Carmike 12, but corporate spokeswoman Suzanne Brown acknowledges the move "is part of steps to reorganize and restructure the company." "At this time it's business as usual" at the Carmike 12, Brown says. Calls to the Georgia Square and Carmike 12 theaters were unanswered at press time.
Residents of neighborhoods surrounding Barnett Shoals Elementary School met on Thursday, August 24 to review the latest version of a planned development on 56 acres of land between the school and the Snapfinger subdivision. The property encompasses acres of scenic pasture surrounded by stands of aged trees. The rear edge of the parcel slopes down to a creek bed. Residents of Snapfinger, Chamberlin and Brookstone subdivisions have grown accustomed to this pastoral landscape, and are sensitive to owner Charles Floyd's plans to develop it. Last year, they successfully fought Floyd's plans for a retirement community there, fearing, among other things, pollution from parking lot runoff and the potential of unsafe elderly drivers on streets their children walk to school. Since then, Floyd, who has lived on the property since 1966, has proposed several versions of a high-density residential development for the residents' approval, the most recent one containing 125 units. Floyd is asking the Planning Commission to rezone his parcel from RS-20 to RS-15, and is seeking a planned development waiver, allowing for townhouses and reduced setbacks, which are not normally permitted in RS-15 zones.
In exchange for the increased density, Floyd has agreed to commit over 23 acres, most of it in contiguous green space around the edge of the property, to a permanent conservation easement with The Athens Land Trust. Floyd's latest plan comes after months of sometimes bitter negotiations with area residents, some of whom have complained that Floyd has threatened to clear-cut the land for timber if they refuse to support his rezoning effort. They also say he once presented a plan to them that they generally accepted, then changed parts of it before submitting it to city planners. And at this point, Floyd has not made his asking price known to residents who might consider pooling their resources to purchase the land.
Though Athens-Clarke County Commissioners Tom Chasteen and Charles Carter were in attendance, the August 24 meeting was cut short when residents learned a member of ACC planning staff, scheduled to address their questions, had been called away on a family emergency. Instead, the group gathered around to examine a topographic map of the acreage, super-imposed with Floyd's latest proposal. Floyd was out of town the night of the meeting. Most who live in the area seem to accept the fact that the land will be developed, but there is disagreement over which way would be best for their community. "To me 27 extra units are worth the guarantee of the conservation easement," said Snapfinger resident John Olive.
Developed under the current RS-20 designation, the property would accommodate 98 units. Floyd has said development of the land at that density while retaining green space would not be economically feasible. Some, like Diane Teague, who also lives in Snapfinger, feel the RS-15 is a bad idea. "I don't want the density there. I don't want the townhouses," Teague said. "It just gets everything so crammed in and so dense. I want it to be like the surrounding neighborhoods."
Critics of the rezoning cite increased traffic along Barnett Shoals Road as a concern, but they are also worried that a developer might alter the subdivision plans after the land is rezoned and sold. A footnote to this debate is that under the new land use plan, Floyd's land would be zoned RS-25, which would presumably make it more difficult for him to get an RS-15 designation. But given the repeated failure of the Mayor and ACC Commission to enact the plan, that point appears moot. The one thing everyone involved agrees on is that, without the support of his neighbors, Floyd's plan will not go through. What would happen then, for better or worse, is anyone's guess. As of this writing, Floyd's plan was scheduled to go before the Planning Commission on Sept. 7.
ACC Pondering Fate Of "Murmur Trestle"
On September 19, Athens-Clarke County Manager Al Crace will report to the ACC Commission on possible uses for what remains of the Dudley Park rail trestle.
Known worldwide as the trestle featured on the back cover of R.E.M.'s Murmur album, it was one of four rail bridges slated for July demolition by CSX Transportation. Built in the late 19th Century along the rail line to Winterville and beyond, the downtown trestles were part of a 1.9 mile section of track officially abandoned by CSX in 1998. Documents obtained by Flagpole show the ACC government had advance notice of CSX's plan to demolish the trestles. In an executive session on July 5 - after dismantling had begun - the ACC Commission decided, with no public input, not to pursue the purchase of the trestles, clearing the way for demolition to continue (see City Pages, July 19, on-line at flagpole.com). The Commission also resolved that evening to pursue its right to negotiate for the land along the rail line. The government has plans to use the corridor as a Rails to Trails project.
Citizens were shocked to see the historic structures coming down, and protests came in to Mayor Doc Eldridge's office from R.E.M. fans around the world. On July 20, Eldridge authorized a 90-day option to purchase the Dudley Park trestle, which had already been partially demolished.
The government paid CSX Transportation's demolition contractor, Bill's Demolition of Athens, Ohio, $5,000 to leave the Dudley Park trestle as is so that the county could assess it for future use. The other trestles had been destroyed completely by that time (see City Pages, July 26, on-line at flagpole.com). Crace says ACC planning staff, Leisure Services and Transportation and Public Works are studying possible uses for the trestle, as well as the costs involved. "They're all putting together their thoughts, and we'll probably be having a roundtable discussion to finalize the proposals," Crace says. "We'd like to get that done this month, so they [the Commissioners] will have a clear idea what the options are and what are some of the feasible choices."
Crace says an agenda report will be ready by Friday, September 15, and will be presented to the Commission at its agenda setting session the following Tuesday.
"That way by September they'll have some sense of what's being proposed to make up their minds by October," Crace says.
Mike Wharton, Natural Resources Division Administrator of the Leisure Services Department, says he has "not heard any specifics" concerning the government's options for the trestle as of yet, but that he envisions it as part of an east-west connector for the North Oconee River Greenway.
"The idea is beginning to look at literally an alternative transportation system to complement vehicle transportation," Wharton says. "Where the trestles fit in is that is one of the possible routes that would go out to the eastern part of the community." Local alternative transportation advocates have criticized the county government for approaching bicycle and pedestrian paths - and the Greenway in particular - as recreational amenities, rather than as useful, environmentally sound transportation corridors. But Wharton says one of the goals of the Greenway is to move people around town without the use of automobiles.
"You're looking at a five-foot wide [trail] on each side. That's pretty substantial," says Wharton. "Can you race down it, can you take clusters of bicycles at one time? No. But then you can't do that with motorcycles [on roads] either." "Certainly down the road having that railroad roadbed would provide a tremendous link to the east-west with the reconstruction or addition of trestles," Wharton says.
CSX's initial asking price for the land along the rail line - approximately 32.5 acres - was $4.7 million. A July 7 Athens Daily News article quoted Mayor Eldridge as saying that, if it acquires the right of way, the county plans to replace the downed trestles with prefabricated steel structures "at a much lower cost." "It's a matter of what they want to do," says Crace. "Whatever they'd like to do we can put it together." (BA)
Mall Theater Closes; Carmike 12 "As Usual"
Just over two weeks after Carmike Cinemas, Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, one of its two Athens theaters has closed its doors. The Georgia Square 4, located inside Georgia Square Mall, shut down on August 24. Once Carmike's premier location in Athens, the theater switched to showing second-run movies at discount rates when the new Carmike 12 opened on Lexington Road. Carmike Cinemas filed for bankruptcy on August 8. In recent years the Columbus, GA-based company took on substantial debt in order to build new theaters and upgrade existing ones, with features such as stadium seating and new projection and sound systems.
The bankruptcy filing came after Carmike missed a $9 million payment to its creditors. In a letter to shareholders accompanying Carmike's 1999 annual report, President and CEO Michael W. Patrick outlined the chain's plans to open 88 new screens and retrofit 10 others in 2000. As of December 31, 1999, Carmike had a total of 2,848 screens in 36 states. Founded in 1982, the company employed just over 11,000 people at the end of last year.
Patrick, who drew $698,000 in salary and bonuses in 1999, acknowledged the company's financial problems in the letter, pointing out that capital expenditures for 2000 would be down by almost $150 million. "Our focus for the year 2000 is to generate positive free cash flow for debt reductions," Patrick wrote. "We plan to accomplish this through improved operating performance, theater closures from natural attrition and targeted early closures..." Rumors of the Georgia Square theater's demise have circulated since the opening of the Carmike 12, but corporate spokeswoman Suzanne Brown acknowledges the move "is part of steps to reorganize and restructure the company." "At this time it's business as usual" at the Carmike 12, Brown says. Calls to the Georgia Square and Carmike 12 theaters were unanswered at press time.
In Other News...
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) reports that pro-hunting interests are advancing federal legislation to protect hunting. HR4790, "The Hunting Heritage Protection Act," passed the House Resources Committee on July 26. The bill instructs federal agencies to "support, promote, and enhance recreational hunting opportunities," and mandates that states maintain acreage for hunters at current levels. The HSUS is urging citizens opposed to HR4790 to contact their U.S. Representatives and "explain that the rights of non-consumptive wildlife enthusiasts (bird-watchers, hikers, and campers) should not be superseded by the desires of over-zealous hunting interests." For more information, go to hsus.org. All members of the U.S. House can be reached at (202) 224-3121, or by e-mail through: house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html.
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