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PUB NOTES
by PETE McCOMMONS
A MEMORIAL TO SPRAWL
Most of our public edifices of note—the
Courthouse, City Hall, the Classic Center, Sanford
Stadium, Stegeman Coliseum—have plaques
commemorating those forward looking citizens
who served on the boards and commissions
responsible for raising these civic structures.
Thus, our earlier benefactors are associated with
the vision they have bequeathed as long as
these buildings shall stand.
Let us likewise authorize a plaque to com
memorate those citizens who will forever
be associated with the responsibility
for dedicating Athens-Claike
County to the inevitability of
urban sprawl. Perhaps this plaque
can be affixed at the gateway of
the Oak Grove development soon
to rise in the former greenbelt on
the Jefferson Road. If the devel
oper who has benefited so greatly
from these Commissioners does not
want to include this expense in his plans,
then surely so public a decision can be commem
orated within the public right-of-way by a suit
able sign. Certainly those Commissioners whose
vision has so emphatically locked us into a
future of sprawl will willingly authorize a few
hundred dollars to finance a fitting memorial to
their sagacity.
If, however, these humble public servants
should shrink for once horn publicizing their
accomplishments, then
let the rest of us citi
zens subscribe by pri
vate donation the
funds necessaiy to
place this commemora
tive plaque at a suit
able location in the
vicinity of the spot
where urban sprawl
was irrevocably and in
perpetuity bulldozed
into our community.
Let this memorial
immortalize the seven
Commissioners and the
Mayor who had the
political audacity to
ignore the most clearly
stated public yearning
to come out of three
years of consideration
and debate: Stop
Urban Sprawl Here
and the corollary: a
greenbelt barrier to
sprawl.
Let this plaque
show that on the
night of November 7,
m the year of our Lord
2000. the following
Commissioners did
vote in favor of a pro
ject, named "Oak
Grove ’ in honor of the
trees it replaced, that
would be built into the
proposed greenbelt,
ending, finally, all
speculation over
whether or not this
Commission wouM act
in accordance with its citizens' wishes and vote
to stop sprawl. Let it be shown that on the night
of November 7, as the votes were being counted
in a local election in which citizens overwhelm
ingly voted for anti sprawl candidates, the ACC
Commission voted overwhelmingly in favor of
sprawl.
Let this memorial plaque also show in perpe
tuity that our Mayor publicly stated his opposi
tion to the November 7 actions of the
Commission and could have single-handedly
overturned said action with his veto but lacked
the fortitude to do so and allowed their actions
to become law: assuming that he could not beat
them, he joined them.
Most change happens incrementally and so
slowly that no one date can be set down as the
point at which change happened. Thus, plat by
plat did the Atlanta Highway turn into the
typical urban blight that besets most
v communities; thus did Oconee County
pass from rural haven to devel
oper's cash cow.
Here in Athens-Clarke,
though, in spite of all the spot
zoning and urban blight that has
crept m, citizens have been
working with their government for
three years to stop sprawl here.
Citizens and government devised a
new land use plan specifically designed to
stop sprawl. As the Mayor and Commission have
repeatedly delayed a vote on the new plan, it
has become evident to the citizens that what is
left of the plan doesn't really stop sprawl. And
no matter how good the plan is, only
Commissioners can stop sprawl.
As the intense public debate of the last three
years neared an end, many wondered where the
Mayor and Commission would come down when
sprawl finally came to
a vote. The
Commission did not
wait for the new plan,
however A month or
so before voting on the
new plan, seven
Commissioners, with
the acqiuescence of
the Mayor, approved
the ruthless disman
tling of the greenbelt
by officially autho
rizing sprawl in
Athens-Clarke County.
Therefore let their
names be immortal
ized, these seven:
Marilyn Farmer, who
even as she voted for
sprawl was being voted
out of office precisely
because of her history
of such votes; Alvin
Sheats, who as usual
spoke not a word, but
voted as usual Linda
Ford the godmother
of unrestrained devel
opment; Cardee
Kilpatrick, who has
suffered a tragic loss of
vision and can no
longer see the Athens-
Clarke she once
defended; Harry Sims
silent, unexplained,
apparently uncon
cerned for the good of
the wider community;
Charles Carte?, seem
ingly blinded by his
own self-interest; and
Hugh Logan, whose appetite for sprawl is
matched only by his benign indifference to the
destruction of stable, iniown neighborhoods.
And finally Mayor Doc Eldridge, whose
moment for a courageous action came, and he
flinched.
Let the plaque further indicate that three
Commissioners John Barrow, Ken Jordan and
Tom Chasteen voted against the development. O
BIRTHPLACE OF SPRAWL
On this spot, the following
officials of Athens-Clarke County,
on the night of November 7, 2000
did institute finally and irrevocably
urban sprawl in this community.
This historic marker memorializes
their names with their deed:
Mayor Doc Eldridge
Commissioners:
Charles Carter, District 1
Harry Sims, District 2
Alvin Sheats, District 3
Hugh Logan, District 5
Marilyn Farmer, District 6
Linda Ford, District ?
Cardee Kilpatrick, District IQ
OPPOSED: ■
John Barrow, District 4
Ken Jordan, District 8
Tom Chasteen, District 9 -
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