NOTE - Any called meeting can occur upon 24 hours notice. Agenda is posted on the lobby bulletin board, but not always on City web site
Council meeting agendas can change, so the Public needs to monitor all meetings despite the upcoming holidays and Spring break vacations. The Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals denied a variance request (5-0) by the owner of 35 Williams Street property on February 28, 2008. The owner has the option to appeal the decision to Superior Court within 30 days.
2003-2005 Land Acquisitions: Did City Have a DeFacto Master Plan?
A variety of City documents, including invoices for legal services, obtained through open records provides a snapshot of prior land acquisitions and other activities, particularly in the Community Development Department. The new City Council voted in January 2006 to out-source Community Development functions to Clark Patterson Associates, pending hiring a new Community Development Director. A comparison of first quarter 2006 legal fees shows nearly 90 percent reduction in over-all legal billings as Council reviews direction of planned development in downtown historic core.
Although a Downtown Development Authority was reconstituted in February 2003, its role in land acquisition was minimal at first. In spring 2004 the former city attorney Peter F. Boyce sent a proposed option on the Wingo Street property to former Councilmember Tim Hopton. The option expired before it was considered by the Mayor and Council. A second option was eventually approved by the Mayor and Council and executed November 1, 2004, allowing DDA involvement in its first land deal.
Contrary to the moribund Downtown Development Authority, the City was feverishly rezoning, and Council was buying and/or attempting to condemn numerous parcels of land, actions normally within the purview of a DDA. Over a million and a half dollars has been spent through 2005 without appraisals being made or any record that can be discovered of votes that took place behind closed doors. Voting in executive session was the policy at the time.
Interesting to note, the lone vote cast against the new open land procurement policy in January 2006 was by Councilmember David B. McLeroy, who has been prominent in land acquisitions in the past. In 2004 article published in The Norcross Times, former Councilmember Josh Bare, praises McLeroy as ". the driving force in acquiring the new Barton Street green space and the lake property that was just purchased on Longview Drive." McLeroy reportedly led the Mitchell Street purchase behind the Old Methodist Church, and was the only council member copied on a letter threatening condemnation through eminent domain sent by the former city attorney Peter F. Boyce to the church owners in August, 2003.
