Athens-Clarke County commissioners voted unanimously to make the bike lanes on Prince Avenue permanent, while a resolution declaring Athens a “safe haven” for the LGBTQIA+ community also passed but proved somewhat more controversial.
The commission voted 8–0, with commissioners Allison Wright and Tiffany Taylor absent, to replace the temporary “zippers” and flex poles protecting cyclists on Prince Avenue with a permanent barrier. A commission-defined option from Wright, Jesse Houle, Dexter Fisher and Melissa Link instructed ACC staff to consider a more visible barrier than a concrete curb, and to look at ways to improve traffic flow and visibility for drivers on side streets in the area.
The bike lanes only run between Pulaski Street and Milledge Avenue because that portion of Prince is locally owned. The Georgia Department of Transportation has plans to install bike lanes along the rest of Prince at some point; however, that project may not involve removing car lanes because the road is wider further out.
Dozens of people spoke for nearly two hours at the Dec. 3 commission meeting in favor of both the bike lanes and the LGBTQ+ resolution. In particular, transgender residents said they felt under threat after an election in which the Trump campaign fearmongered against trans people. No one spoke against the bike lanes, and only one—former mayoral candidate Bennie Coleman—opposed the resolution, citing his belief that God created men and women.
Commissioner John Culpepper voted against the resolution because, he said, it only protects one class of people. His opponent in the 2022 election, Allen Jones, who is gay, was among those who spoke in favor of it.
Commissioner Ovita Thornton also voted against it, saying she no longer supports resolutions in general. “I just have too many bad memories of resolutions that we’ve passed in the past, that we did not anticipate the collateral damage maybe one or two or three years later,” she said, possibly referring to a 2019 resolution pronouncing Athens to be a welcoming community for immigrants, which conservatives pointed to after Laken Riley’s murder, falsely claiming it made Athens a sanctuary city.
The commission tabled another resolution asking the state legislature to allow cities and counties to implement ranked-choice voting, avoiding the need for costly and often low-turnout runoffs. (Only 161 people voted in a recent runoff for a Clarke County school board seat.) Thornton said she needed more information on the topic, and Wright, Culpepper and Commissioner Mike Hamby agreed. Mayor Kelly Girtz broke the 4–4 tie, explaining that legislators usually won’t consider acting on such resolutions unless they are unanimous.
In other business, the commission unanimously approved a 60-home subdivision on Shadybrook Drive that faced certain defeat in September, until Houle convinced colleagues to allow the developer to withdraw it. If voted down, the proposal could not have been resubmitted for a year.
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