Politics & Government

Update: Athens Clarke County Commission Meeting

We provide a running blog of the regular Tuesday night meeting of the Commission and Mayor.

7:00: The Comission meeting room is filling up fast.  A group of J-school students is giggling as Mayor Denson calls the meeting to order. The Mayor thanks for his service and dedication and praises the police department. And the community for its outpouring of love and support for Christian and for , who is recovering at home from gunshot wounds and subsequent surgery.

7:03: Mayor Denson presents Jim Corley, director of the with a Gold Certificate for his LEED building. The Commission passes a consent agenda, and then the business moves to other issues, the first of which is the expansion of the. 

7:08: "Athens is a proven destination and this expansion can give us an economic future we deserve," says Diane Bell, a member of the Advisory Group who created a list of SPLOST projects. A representative from the green industry speaks of her support for Option 1 (a) for the center's expansion.

Find out what's happening in Athenswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

7:11: Commissioner Kathy Hoard says she sees little advantage in studying the expansion issue further. After re-reading comments from those who spoke at last week's meeting, she believes, "It's the economy, stupid." She says she has learned from the planning director that projects along Thomas Street must follow design guideline standards. Asking for the approval of Option 1 (a). There will be pedestrian access from Thomas to Foundry, but Hancock Avenue will end at Thomas Street.

7:21: Commission Jared Bailey says the commission is being rushed on the Classic Center project. Commissioner Ed Robinson seconds what Bailey says. He then makes a curious analogy: he compares the rush to make a decision to stupid deer who eat the tender shoots in his garden. If the deer would only wait, Robinson says, the plants would grow and the deer would eat more and better. Robinson then brings up the ghost of Sparky's, a seafood restaurant on Thomas Street which was, he says, turning into an artist market when it was torn down to make way for the original Classic Center. (As I recall, Sparky's had been torn down and a parking lot created on land where the Classic Center was built, but I could be wrong.)

Find out what's happening in Athenswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

7:31:  Commissioner Alice Kinman endorses the motion from Kathy Hoard, saying the public input process had been arduous and also useful.

7:36: Commissioner George Maxwell notes the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and that the 26 people who came forward to talk to the Commission last week in support of Option 1 (a) for the Classic Center were mostly business people who will benefit from its timely expansion.

7:39: Commissioner Harry Sims says some level of remediation will be necessary before the all land from Foundry Street to the river can be developed.

7:42: Ed Robinson proposes delaying the vote for a month. Only Jared Bailey and he support this idea.

7:46:  We are going into the most critical phase of the project, the design project, with the public and our architects, says Kathy Hoard. What we're going tonight is using the property we own and the property we can to move forward on a project that will provide economic benefit for the whole community. Option 1(a) passes by a vote of 8 to 2, with Jared Bailey and Ed Robinson voting against moving ahead on the expansion.

7:54: The chambers in City Hall have emptied. 

 


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