Friday, January 4, 2002
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Friday, January 4, 2002 |
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Sewer lawsuit finale set today By DAVE
HAMRICK
Tyrone and Fairburn officials will find out Friday whether their sewerage agreement will go down the drain, along with home buyers' plans to move into a new Tyrone subdivision. Lawyers made their final arguments Tuesday in Fayette County's lawsuit asking that the agreement be nullified. The county is asking Fulton Judge Constance Russell to nullify the agreement, in which Tyrone will buy sewer capacity from Fairburn and sell it to John Wieland Homes for the Southhampton subdivision, saying that Fairburn would be providing sewer service outside its borders, something its charter does not permit. Wieland's lawyers joined the two cities in defending the agreement. "We would have to stop building homes and marketing homes [if the sewer agreement is stopped]," testified Edward Woodland, Wieland's vice president for the south Atlanta region, during a December hearing in the case. Woodland was a witness during a hearing on Fayette's motion for a temporary injunction, to halt plans for the sewer deal pending a final hearing in the matter. Russell denied that injunction, but offered lawyers on both sides a chance to argue the case in a final showdown Jan. 8, so the matter would be settled before residents start moving in. They did so, and Russell promised to rule on the matter at 4:40 p.m. in her courtroom in Fulton County Superior Court. Thirty-seven homes are under construction, with 16 of them under contract, Woodland said. Three homes are scheduled to close in January, he added, the first one this Saturday. In his arguments, assistant Fayette County Attorney Dennis Davenport said another remedy exists the company can build a small sewer plant just for the subdivision. Lawyers for Tyrone and Wieland argued that the subdivision is in a sensitive area environmentally, so a spray application sewer plant there is not a good option. Originally, Wieland had planned to build a sewer plant for the subdivision, a plan that caused the Tyrone Town Council to deny Wieland's request for rezoning. But a court overruled that decision. Tyrone officials then worked out the agreement to purchase sewer capacity from Fairburn as a way to avoid having Wieland build the plant. The key question, as articulated by Judge Russell during previous hearings, is: "Who owns this sewer?" Fayette maintains that, because Fairburn would be treating the sewage, the city would be providing the sewer service. Since the city's charter doesn't allow it to provide sewer service outside its borders, that would be illegal, Davenport argued. Lawyers for the defendants argue that, because Tyrone will own the collection system for the sewage as well as the line connecting it to Fairburn's system, Tyrone will be the provider of sewerage. And Tyrone's charter does allow it to provide sewer service outside its borders. In this instance, though, the town has no plans to do so, the lawyers said. The 250,000 gallons a day of capacity the town will buy from Fairburn is totally absorbed by the subdivision and an attached commercial development being built by developer Phillip Seay Sr., they pointed out. County leaders are fighting the agreement, they have said repeatedly, because they fear the existence of a sewer line running through unincorporated Fayette County will encourage future developers to tap into the sewerage and build high-density neighborhoods. The county's long-range plans for that area call for minimum building lots of one acre.
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