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Historic District Draws Interest
PLUS, MORE ELECTION WORRIES AND MORE DEBATE OVER E-SGOOTERS
By Blake Aued, Chris Dowd and Rebecca McCarthy news@flagpole.com
A new historic district covering the west
side of downtown Athens will help pro
tect culturally important structures from
redevelopment, two Athens-Clarke County
commissioners and historic preservation
experts said at a town hall meeting last
week, but some remain unconvinced of the
benefits.
Commissioners Tim
Denson and Melissa Link
hosted the town hall meeting
Jan. 21 at Flicker Theatre
and Bar, along with Historic
Athens Executive Director
Tommy Valentine and Cari
Goetcheus, a University of
Georgia professor whose stu
dents conducted research on
the proposed district.
While downtown is cur
rently a national historic dis
trict, that offers no protection
except from federal highway
and construction projects,
Valentine said. Downtown east
of Lumpkin is already pro
tected by a local historic dis
trict, but the Hot Corner—the
historically African-American commercial
district at Washington and Hull streets—
and the heart of the local music scene on
West Washington remain vulnerable to
development. “If there’s any place in Athens
that deserves to be a local historic district,
full stop, this is it,” Valentine said.
The west end of downtown is also nota
ble for its varied architecture centered
around transportation, Goetcheus said.
It was more working-class than the east
end, with flea markets, gas stations, an Art
Deco bus station that’s now Chuck’s Fish
and tire shops like the one now occupied by
Creature Comforts. Historic preservation
ists now consider those kinds of everyday
buildings worth protecting because “they
mean a lot to our culture,” she said.
Today, though, Link said she’s worried
that downtown is “becoming primarily a
playground for students, and the people
who put it on the map are increasingly
being pushed out.” Owners of the new
luxury student high-rises downtown want
corporate tenants in their commercial
spaces, and would rather let them sit empty
than lower rents to a price local businesses
can afford. In addition, “they don’t have the
character folks in the creative class are seek
ing,” she said.
When the GameDay condo building was
built almost 20 years ago, it prompted new
design guidelines for downtown, but those
don’t go far enough, Link said. Something
like the UnCommon development at
Lumpkin and Dougherty could be built by
right, with no permission from the local
government needed. And growth is headed
to the west end, she said, pointing to plans
for a 350-bedroom development just west
of downtown, where a Day’s Inn now
stands. “I’m not so happy about something
so huge and out of character, but this is
what the law allows,” she said.
Link and Valentine emphasized, though,
that a historic district won’t prevent new
development from happening. It just gives
the local government more oversight about
what that development will look like. “It
can be very modern if it still fits,” Link said.
Valentine cited a planned new building
next to University Tower that will include
a small Target as an example of a develop
ment that passed muster with the Historic
Preservation Commission.
About half of the 40 or so people who
attended the meeting raised
their hands when asked if
they support the district,
but a handful opposed it and
several still had questions. If
a historic district can’t keep
out chains and still allows
big buildings, local music fan
Kathy Harr asked, then what’s
the point? One downtown
property owner, lawyer David
Montgomery, said African-
American property owners
would be harmed financially.
(Denson and Valentine coun
tered that historic districts
come with tax benefits and
grant opportunities.) On the
other hand, Drew Dekle, who
owns the Flicker building, said
he’s “100% in favor” of the
proposal, which is scheduled for a commis
sion vote in June. [Blake Aued]
Experts Raise Concerns About [lections
A panel of voting rights advocates
expressed serious concerns last week on
a range of issues relating to elections in
Georgia, including local elections here in
Athens.
Jesse Evans, one of the panelists and
newly elected chairman of the ACC Board of
Elections, expressed doubts about his own
agency’s commitment to ensuring a smooth
2020 election season. He cast much of the
blame on Director of Elections and Voter
Registration Charlotte Sosebee, saying that
she has consistently resisted his efforts over
several years to expand opportunities for
people to vote, such as by adding new poll
ing locations. “All the things I’ve been try
ing to do since I’ve been on the board have
been met with resistance,” he said.
Sosebee was criticized for being unpre
pared for the high turnout of the 2018 mid
term elections, which resulted in long lines
at the polls for many voters. Evans said he
believes there may be similar problems this
year. At the panel discussion at Cine on Jan.
21, he pointed to technical difficulties with
the new voting machines that have yet to
be overcome and expressed concerns about
several polling locations merged years ago
due to school construction that have yet
to be separated. He worried this will again
cause extremely long lines that might be
discouraging to voters.
Going further, Evans said he “doesn’t
see any evidence” that Sosebee is doing the
work needed to overcome these issues. For
example, he said he was concerned Sosebee
was not preparing a backup plan in case
problems with the new voting machines
prevented their use. Other Board of
Elections members agreed, and they voted
3-2 at a recent meeting to require that
Sosebee use paper ballots in case the elec
tronic ballot marking devices failed.
Sosebee told Flagpole she did in fact
support the idea of using paper ballots as
a backup. However, since a provision for
using paper ballots was already in the state
elections code, she felt the recent vote was
unnecessary. She also felt that it might be
misinterpreted as a preference for paper
over the ballot marking devices which are
required by state law as “plan A.”
Sosebee said at the Board of Elections’
most recent meeting that she will introduce
plans this week to “unmerge” four merged
precincts and create four new voting sites,
so that all 24 local precincts will each have
their own voting location for the May 19
primaries. Current voting sites will remain
in effect for the Mar. 24 presidential
primary.
Regarding the long lines of the 2018
election, Sosebee said she doesn’t expect
them to return in 2020, but that she can’t
make any guarantees if voter turnout is
New "Western Downtown Historic District" Boundaries
As Proposed by New Commission Defined Option by ACC Commissioners Melissa Link and Mike I lamb)'
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Endorsed by:
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Historic
Athens
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FLAGPOLE.COM | FEBRUARY 5, 2020
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