For those who came in late, the West Fayetteville Bypass (“WFB”), better known as “the road to nowhere,” is a project that has become increasingly controversial over the past three years.
When the voters narrowly approved the 2004 SPLOST package, the WFB was buried deep inside as “a road, street or bridge project.” It was not identified by name on the ballot. As a result, most people don’t realize they voted for it.
Phase I began several years ago, when unexpected surveyors were found roaming about on private parcels of land in the Piedmont Fayette Hospital/Sandy Creek road area. Because of the uproar of our citizenry, the county sent out notices to impacted landowners on Phase II, which was supposed to be completed in 2010.
Since that time, there has been an uproar of complaints from all areas of the county. Here was a road that had not been given a detailed traffic study, and it appeared to have no viable purpose other than going through major developers’ land tracts. According to the commissioners, the WFB would “reduce congestion in Fayetteville,” several miles east of the alignment area.
Over the next three years, many hundreds of irate citizens complained to the Fayette County Commission. They attended meetings and submitted public comments. They wrote letters to the commissioners, and they wrote hundreds of letters in local newspapers. None of it did any good.
The WFB and the failed 2009 SPLOST referendum proved to be so unpopular, Commissioners Smith and Maxwell were voted out. Both had taken positions publicly in favor of the WFB. But the remaining commissioners stayed on the same page with Smith and Maxwell. They made all efforts by the new commissioners for transparency mathematically impossible by forming a three-vote blockade. They rejected Commissioner Brown’s proposals not only on the WFB, but also for bidding contracts competitively. Any issues involving bringing transparency to Fayette County were simply voted out by 3-to-2 margins.
When Commissioner Brown proposed the usage of House Bill 240, which would finally allow the voters to choose whether or not they wanted the WFB, that, too, went down the drain, 3 to 2. Had the vote been allowed and the citizens voted against the project, the money could have been used to reduce county debt and property tax.
What amazes me is how Frady, Horgan and Hearn can endure all the ridicule and complaints they’ve faced over the most unpopular project in the history of Fayette County. Commissioner Hearn was heard saying that he was tired of hearing about the WFB, and would not change his vote.
What makes it even more amazing is that during the entire period all this has been going on, nobody has stepped up in support of the WFB either by submitting a newspaper article or a public comment.
The bottom line is that the three commissioners have made up their minds that the public they are supposed to represent is wrong.
When all this is factored together, it makes you wonder who’s really pulling the strings on this project.
Steve Smithfield
Fayetteville, Ga.
[Smithfield owns property being acquired under condemnation proceedings by the county for the bypass right of way.]
