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Judge nixes PTC plan for closed meeting on Target details

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

The Peachtree City Council can meet in executive session to discuss the site plan for the Kedron Target and other retail stores, but not with representatives of the development company or a nearby homeowner’s association present, a judge ruled Friday afternoon.

Fayette Superior Court Judge Christopher C. Edwards enjoined the meeting after a court hearing to resolve a suit filed by The Citizen challenging the meeting, which was to take place at 6 a.m. Monday morning.

Georgia law allows cities to conduct closed session meetings to keep attorney-client communications intact. But in his ruling in favor of the newspaper, Edwards said having representatives of Faison Corporation, Peachtree City Holdings and the Kedron Hills Homeowners Association waives that attorney-client privilege.

Therefore, Edwards said, a meeting with outside parties must be held in public under the Georgia Open Meetings Act.

“There is no doubt that democracy is difficult,” Judge Edwards said in issuing his ruling.

Laurel Henderson, an attorney representing Peachtree City, argued that a face-to-face meeting between all the parties was deemed necessary because the negotiations using attorneys as go-betweens hadn’t been fruitful.

“I know you want to hash it out, but I don’t think the statute authorizes that,” Judge Edwards said.

Henderson said the city council wouldn’t vote on anything brought up in the closed session and she added that the council did not ask for the meeting. She didn’t elaborate on whether the meeting was sought by Faison, the homeowner’s association, or both.

“The city is trying to act in the public interest,” Henderson said.

Henderson unsuccessfully argued that Georgia’s statutes on mediation allow for such negotiations to be conducted in private. She also said the state’s open meetings law makes it hard for a city to conduct its legal business.

Judge Edwards is also presiding over the pending suit over the Target plan. The judge added that there are other ways for the city to continue its negotiations with Faison Development and the homeowner’s association.

After the hearing, Peachtree City Manager Bernie McMullen said the council would still meet at 6 a.m. Monday to discuss the matter with its own attorneys in closed session.

The Target store, at 125,000 sq. ft., will be part of a third phase retail expansion of the Kedron Village shopping center. The development has been dragged out in court with the nearby Kedron Hills neighborhood taking part in the legal fray to protect the interest of those homeowners.

Another nearby subdivision, St. Simons Cove, has taken umbrage at some of the “solutions” that were devised during lawsuit negotiations to meet the needs of Kedron Hills homeowners. St. Simons Cove homeowners protested the changes to the Target plan at a city council meeting, but they were not involved in the original lawsuit, which began when developer Faison Corporation complained the city failed to vote properly on its plan for the expansion.

The suit is still pending as the parties have tried to work under a consent order that everyone agreed to earlier this year.