Friday, January 31, 2003
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Friday, January 31, 2003 |
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Lenox: $825,000 land purchase should have been discussed in public By JOHN MUNFORD After being accused of lying to the public in a letter to the editor that criticized Mayor Steve Brown, former mayor Bob Lenox got to clear the air when he addressed the City Council last week. In the letter to the editor, Lenox had accused Brown of "squandering" $825,000 to purchase approximately five acres of land at the entrance to the Wynnmeade subdivision. He said the money should have instead been set aside for road projects such as the extension of TDK Boulevard into Coweta County. Lenox argued at the meeting that before the land purchase, the matter should have been debated in public instead of behind closed doors. Instead, it was purchased "before the public ever knew anything about it." Lenox also contended that the property may not usable for a cart path bridge as now planned, and the city should have done an engineering study before the property was purchased. When Lenox was in office, he said the plan was to save about a million dollars from the city's lease-purchasing program to use for road projects, which are difficult to handle because of the timing issues involved. "We didn't do anything publicly, but I can assure you as the financial planner for the city in conjunction with a couple of the senior managers who are no longer with us, we said 'This is our shotgun behind the door when we need big money for roads.'" Lenox said. "... Everybody up here can take issue with my choice of wording in the paper but the fact of the matter is I didn't tell any lies. And I resent the fact that I'm sitting out there being called a liar." The million dollars was "tucked away," with no commitments on how the money would be spent. In his mind, it was set aside to take care of the city's road projects. "It was not in the budget, and in fact when it was spent for the land that was bought with it, the land wasn't in the budget either," Lenox said. Councilman Steve Rapson said the method of financing used for the Wynnmeade property could not be used to fund road projects. The loan Lenox had referred to was for $3 million to purchase equipment over the next three years, Rapson said. "If you're proposing we don't buy fire engines and police cars, which is the bulk of that money was for the next two or three years, then you're right. ... perhaps we could redirect some of that $3 million. But that was not the council intent and there was never a million dollars of mystery road contingency money set aside." Lenox also said that one of the city's reasons to purchase the land was invalid: to stop strip commercial development on Ga. Highway 54. Since the land was zoned for residential use, council did not have to rezone the property for commercial use. "I think the developer in this case sold Mayor Brown a bridge and he sold it to you guys, and it was the Brooklyn bridge," Lenox said. "They were land-planned for commercial and we would not have survived a lawsuit for commercial zoning," Brown replied. But the land use plan called for one of the parcels to have a limited use commercial zoning where it could only be used as a bank or day care. The other parcel was land use planned residential, Lenox added. "Here's an irony. I spent three years of my life being beat up by Mr. Brown because I couldn't stop Wal-Mart from being built on 40 acres of land that has been zoned commercial for 30 years. Now Mr. Brown sits up there and tells me he cannot stop a gas station from being built on residential land that's been zoned residential for 30 years. I think you owe me an apology. I really do." "We needed somewhere to land a bridge, Bob," Brown said. Rapson later added that he felt the Wynnmeade land purchase was "probably the single-most thing this council's going to be known for" in 10 years "because that's critical property." "The stopping of development, the park at Wynnmeade and the golf cart bridge, all of those are critical to the future success and the future quality of life in Peachtree City," Rapson said.
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