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SOMETHING’S MISSING
I attended the Mayor and Commission vot-'
ing meeting on Dec. 7, in particular to hear
the outcome of the Chi Phi fraternity's special-
use permit application to build a 20,000-plus
square-foot fraternity house on the property
at 925 S. Milledge Ave., located at the inter
section with Rutherford Street. This property
is commonly referred to as historic Amocroft;
the historic house is not part of the redevel
opment and will be mothballed for at least the
short-term.
In case you missed it, there has been a lot
of controversy about this project for over two
years now. The project has been before both
the planning commission and the historic
preservation commission numerous times.
The neighbors in the vicinity of the property
from both sides of Milledge, as well as rep
resentatives from Barrow Elementary SchoQl,
for which that stretch of Rutherford serves as
their official Safe Routes to School pedestrian
route, have been involved from the begin
ning and have never stopped expressing their
concern about and opposition to the project.
Over a dozen of these well-informed and
well-spoken representatives have consistently
shown up at all formal hearings for the project
and presented their positions. In short, the
neighbors' concerns are centered on negative
impacts to their quality-of-life, their property
values, traffic issues, pedestrian safety, etc.
The necessary criteria for the neighbors* to
stop the development was to show that the
addition of a fraternity use at that location
would have a significant negative impact on
their neighborhood and a greater negative
impact than whatever else would be allowed
to go there.
My point here is not to provide a blow-
by-blow of what transpired Tuesday, nor even
to comment on the outcome. I want to com
ment on the actions of the commission once
the discussion went behind the raiL To me,
the procedures from that point on seemed
orchestrated, and I felt as if I were observ
ing a scripted discussion. After considerable
intelligent, heartfelt and well-reasoned argu
ments by the neighbors and Barrow represen
tatives, they received not one vote in their
favor from the commission. Just about every
commissioner who commented thanked the
neighbors for all their hard work and gave lip-
service to their anguish, but none seemed to
step back and think for even a moment that
the neighbors' issues were real and should
possibly affect their decision. It was, I felt,
astounding—a unanimous vote in favor of a
large fraternity constructing its new 20,000-
plus square-foot fraternity house right next to
and in the midst of single-family residential
neighborhoods. Really?!?
This commission seems to frequently have
unanimous votes, especially with regard to big
issues. Perhaps it's strange for me to complain
about this, but it's just that I get the sense
that there is so much going on before these
votes occur and that the public is denied the
benefit of hearing how these votes are arrived
at; that by the time the commissioners sit
down, there will be no surprises. I think com
promise is absolutely essential to good gov
ernment, and I am certainly happy that our
commissioners can find common ground, but
I, for one, would find it refreshing to see a lit
tle dissension now and then,'a little genuine
debate going on behind the rail for all to see.
I would like to hear t.»e uncertainty that one
commissioner might
have befo-e he/she
makes a decision.
Most importantly, I
would like to think
that the comments
of citizens who show
up at the commission
meetings and step up
to the mike make a
difference.
As I watched the
"discussion" of the commission on Dec. 7, it
brought to mind the Seinfeld "Marble Rye"
episode when George is having dinner with his
parents and his soon-to-be in-laws. As George
agonizingly rolls his eyes, his father carries
on about the sexual habits of chickens, hens *
and roosters and finally says, "Something's
missing!" George's mother-in-law takes a
swig of her wine and drunkenly deadpans,
"Something's missing all right." That’s how I
felt at the end of the commission meeting;
something's missing.
Amy Kissane
Athens
HATCHETJOB
Yellow journalism! The Dec 1 Athens Rising
included all the requisite elements: name-call
ing (Rick the Printer AKA the "Dilapidator"),
community horrors such as rodents, criminals,
spreading "decrepitude" (huh?), fires, crum
bling walls and, worst of all, scared investors.
The ordinarily informative and instructive
column in the hands of Kevan Williams became
vacuous flim-flam when penned by Dan
Lorentz.
Absent was any information regarding the
actual condition of Rick Hawkins' properties
in Athens and Lexington or any extenuating
circumstances. There was no mention of the
fact that commercial options at the Lexington
properties are severely limited by the absence
of sewer or any complementary commercial
activity in the small town of 65 families and
239 persons. In the hands of an investor
caretaker, at least restoration of Rick's historic
structures remains a possibility, as opposed to
the demolished St Mary's Church (of R.E.M.
fame) adjacent to Rick's print shop in Athens,
or the long-unproductive lot across Oconee
Street.
Neither was there any consideration that
developers squeezed and essentially orphaned
the print-shop when the Steeplechase condos
were constructed. Nor
was there any sym-
* pathy expressed for
• the victim of a fire-
similar to that shown
the equally "historic"
Georgia Theatre. Or
are we to infer that
vandalism and fire
are "karma," and
exactly what dilapi-
dators deserve?
Are we also to infer that rehabilitation
processes are rapid and obvious? Were not
the darlings of current preservationists—
Cobbham, New Town, Boulevard—at one time
hopeless and impractical eyesores ripe for
demolition? Even our venerable City Hall was
slated for urban renewal! If only Rick had
bought some of the fabulous Prince Avenue
homes of which only photos now remain.
In fact, community forbearance and
patience are essential, because diverse,
desirable development involves unplanned
elements and evolves slowly, much as free
marketplaces produce the most congenial
outcomes and the least harm. Surely Lorentz
does not hold as civic heroes those visionary
investors who gave us Tailgate Station and
the Gameday condos, or who have brutalized
Carrs HiU.
At best the point of Lorentz's column
was to demonstrate the common knowledge
that public and private investments (or lack •
thereof) collectively generate additional public
and private value—what economists label
"external effects." But that well intentioned
point became specious when followed by a
recommendation that the "city devote more
resources to returning as many parcels as pos
sible to productive use as quickly as possible."
Is that the same city that pursues vibrant
downtown objectives by ceding arterial streets
to UGA superblocks and Classic Center exhibit
halls, or the "productive use" embodied by yet
another humongous and unnecessary parking
garage among the other sterile lots already
dedicated to surface parking; the same city
that continues to divert public resources to
the unquenchable appetite of an ever-expand
ing convention center, or a criminal justice
system that builds for incarceration over reha
bilitation; or a city that struggles to support
diverse transportation options, greenways,
public parks and protected waterways?
Finally, at the bottom, Lorentz's column
provides a welcome reference to the excellent
advice of architect Witold Rybczynski—that
dense urban areas can be extremely livable
when comptemented by the right mixture of
diversity, public spaces, scale, view sheds, nat
ural features and garden greenery. I only wish
Lorentz had started there and constructively
applied those principles to the discussions
that hopefully will facilitate the expanded and
viable downtown Athens so desperately needs,
rather than fingering Rick the Printer as the
fall guy for developmental stink extending
down Oconee Street all the way to Lexington.
I also wish Lorentz had taken the oppor
tunity to identify Rick as a founder and early
printer of Flagpole magazine (with Dennis
Greenia and Jared Bailey), and credit him for
being among Athens' most notable recyclers/
reusers/collectors. Pony-tailed Rick will always
remain part of the music lore and countercul
ture of Athens: a talented printer, iconoclast,
utilitarian, frugal entrepreneur and immutable
hippie; a Spartan environmentalist who pow
ers his diesel station-wagon with French-fry
grease.
The fact is that Rick is far more vision
ary than accomplished, so easy to disparage.
But face it the greater reality is that he has
bought and benignly neglected buildings and
other "junk* that no one else wanted, and
otherwise would have been demolished, but
now await the time for more focused involve
ment by the tikes of a Lee Epting. Admittedly
unconventional Rick is nonetheless a closet
preservationist, for which community recogni
tion is due.
Carl Jordan
Athens
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FLAGP01E.C0M • DECEMBER 15,2010