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MORE TALK THAN ACTION
Seiig was gives
sextons professional
criticism of its plan
Plenty has happened during the two weeks
since we last checked in on the downtown
Seiig development. Just before Christmas.,
the Atlanta firm posted previously unseen
elevation renderings on its beat PR website
(wwfw.seUgathens.com), including views from
Wilkerson and Oconee streets and the planned
rail-trail extension of the Greenway. Of course,
the perspeetiveless, straight-on illustrations ■
can't purport to show what the edifices will
took like in real life: to attain the viewpoint
represented in the panoramic Wilkerson Street
elevation, for instance, one would have to be
suspended about 40 feet in the air above the
North Oconee River, and the Waterford Plate
apartments would have to be taken out of the
way. From the street for which the rendering is
named, the building will took like what it is:
a sheer, five-story brick wall giving way to
eight splendid bays of visible parking and cul
minating, nearly a city block later, in another
sheer wall. When you go to the site and look
at the renderings—and you should—keep that
in mind; the tiny people at the bottoms of
the illustrations will help give you an idea of
what's being proposed.
Right about the time those renderings
were released, an Athens Banner-Herald article
helpfully entitled "Walmart only option for
downtown Athens development" reported
that Seiig VP Jo Ann Chitty "approached
other grocers about leasing a 94,QOO-square-
foot space at the proposed
Oconee Street development,
but none of them were
interested." As Chitty put it,
"Walmart was the only one
that was willing to adapt to
an urban design"—which
might have prompted the question: to which
of these mutually exclusive conditions were
the unnamed grocers unwilling to agree: a
94,000-square-foot space or an urban design?
Chitty, unfortunately, did not elaborate. The
good news? That sheer wall at the comer of
Wilkerson and Oconee is apparently being
reconsidered, as architects look for ways to
imbue the five-story Walmart parking deck
with "more of a pedestrian scale." Seriously.
And so, last week, with Seng's PR
onslaught thus humming along unchal
lenged and local elected officials—those
not actively enabling the developer's plans,
that is—content to wait for the release of
Selig's long-promised traffic study before
reopening their "negotiations" with the firm,
concerned citizens attempted to step into .the
breach. At the ACC Mayor and Commission's
Jan. 3 meeting, citizens aligned with People
for a 8etter Athens, the group led by Russell
Edwards that has circulated a petition oppos-
ing jthe "anchoring" of the development with a
94,000-square-foot Walmart packed the com
mission chamber at City HaU as Edwards deliv
ered the petition, bearing more than 17,000
names, to the M&C.
On a night when two commissioners, Kathy
Hoard and Kelly Girtz, explained that they
were voting against their personal beliefs
not to fund public art at ACCs new jail in
deference to the "overwhelming" number of
constituents who'd expressed their outrage
over the proposal—"hundreds," as Hoard put
it—it was tempting to imagine that Edwards'
passionately committed group—so often.
denigrated in the local media as "the anti-
W3lmart crowd"—might not, after all, be as
easily marginalized as the narrative pushed by
Seiig and its shills would have it. If the mayor
and commissioners weren't impressed with the
well-reasoned and well-articulated arguments
by the dozen or so Athenians who lined up to
address them, then the anti-public art crowd
must be a persuasive lot indeed.
Two nights later—in a meeting to which
members of the press and government officials
were not among Ue 45 people invited by
organizer Bob Sleppy—Chitty and Scott Seiig,
also a VP of hts family's company, addressed
a crowd of community members gathered in
a rented-out Hug's Space, across the street .
from the site of their proposed development.
Then, they heard the testimony of a handful of
local experts on urban design, environmental
impacts of development, transportation and
traffic, as well as presentations on neighbor
hood, business and civic character issues.
Perhaps for the first time, high-ranking Seiig
executives were given serious professional
criticism of their plan, as it pertains exactly
to Athens and its downtown, from heavily
credentialed authorities entirely outside their
own purview. .
The fact that the meeting was closed to
the public and the press is a problem. As
the commission meeting earlier in the week
showed, this development commands intense
community interest, and it's very obvious
that the community wants to be involved in
discussions about how it wilt evolve. But if,
as Sleppy contends, conducting these interac
tions in a bubble was the
only way for them to happen
at all, then it's probably a
good thing they did. Still,
Seiig won't be accountable
for having heard all this cru
cial input until it's a matter
of public record. It's now time for the partici
pants in last week's meeting to share their
knowledge with the rest of the community,
with Selig's acknowledgment that it's listen
ing. Scott Selig's Dec. 4 Banner-Herald edito
rial concluded, "We look forward to working
with the greater Athens community to develop
a project that is good for downtown, good for
Athens, and good for the region." He and his
family's company must now be compelled to
make good on that promise.
It seems highly unlikely that Selig's traffic
study, which must be approved by the state
transportation department and must follow
standard guidelines laid out in a manual by'
the Institute of Traffic Engineers, will find
that Oconee Street can handle the added traf
fic load that this project, as planned, would
bring. Additionally, its impacts on important
civic assets like the Greenway and the multi
modal center—wirich Have already been paid
for with taxpayer dollars—are not to be
discounted. This must be taken as the oppor
tunity for real community input that we have
thus for been denied.
Commissioners have to insist that members
of the community be a part of the process
of redesigning the complex if and when it
becomes necessary, and it's their responsibility
to bring the developer to the table in actual
negotiations to protect our long-term interests
as a community. Incentives should be offered,
if necessary, for Seiig to turn their develop
ment into something that sanely and posi
tively interfaces with the city that surrounds
it. Seiig has promised that its intention is
to make Athens better, but make no mistake:
we're going to have to hold.them to it
Dave Marr news@flagpofe.com
Georgia's legislators will do plenty of talk
ing about the major issues that confront them
during the General Assembly session that
kicked off this week. When it comes to actu
ally passing legislation that would do some
thing about these issues, however, the odds
are much lower that lawmakers' actions will
match their words. You shouldn't expect to see
the passage of many significant bills this year.
A big reason for this is that 2012 is an
election year in which the seats of all 236
senators and representatives will be up for
grabs, lawmakers will want to end the session
quickly so they can once again solicit contri
butions and get their reelection campaigns
underway. Last year's redrawing of politi
cal boundary lines also means that
many legislators will be running in
districts with a large number of
people that they've never repre
sented before. I don't think an
incumbent lawmaker will want
to explain to a new constituent
why he or she voted for a contro
versial bill that got the folks back
home riled up. '
You will certainly hear Gov.
Nathan Deal and the General Assembly
leadership talking about their desire to ratchet
up the state sales tax so that they can reduce
the state income tax. The drive to enact this
revision of the tax code foundered last year,
but some lawmakers are still pushing for that
kind of tax shift. They've been surfacing pro
posals to reinstate the sales tax on groceries,
raise the overall state sales tax from 4 percent
to 5 percent, and increase the excise tax on
cigarettes by $1 a pack.
Most of the leadership has indicated they
won't support those tax increases—which
effectively puts a reduction in the income
tax out of reach. Deal's media spokesman has
already said the governor won't sign a tax
increase.
"I would be opposed to that although I
think that it is important that we continue
to have a discussion about what sort of tax
system we want to have in Georgia," Speaker
David Ralston said when asked about reinstat
ing the grocery tax.
"Putting the sales tax back on groceries is a
non-starter for me," It Gov. Casey Cagle said.
The one tax revision measure that has a
fair chance of passing is the elimination of
the state sales tax on energy purchased by
manufacturers and farmers, which would result
in an estimated S150 million reduction in
state revenues.
You won't see much action this year on
another issue that consumed every lawmaker's
attention last yean keeping undocumented
immigrants out of Georgia. Legislators are not
expected to go back and make any major
changes in the state's new immigra
tion law, despite the adverse impact
it had on the state's farmers.
Instead, they will sit back and
see if a federal court in Atlanta
continues to block some of the
law's provisions.
"I think that it is premature
to go back and revisit that issue
this session," Ralston said. "My
view is, we let the court case take its
course and wait a little while to gather
some more evidence about the impact that
this is really having."
Deal may have some success in his push for
changes in the state's sentencing laws so that
fewer people are sent to prison while drug
addicts End non-violent offenders are diverted
into alternative treatment programs.
Legislators could also find themselves vot
ing on a new law that would allow just about
anyone to cany a firearm in public without
having to bother with such things as finger
printing, background checks of their criminal
arrest records, or obtaining a concealed weap
ons permit
At this point in time, it appears we will
have a relatively quiet legislative session.
Let's see how long that prediction holds.
Tom Crawford tcrawford@gareport.com
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4 FLAGPOLE.COM • JANUARY 11,2012
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