NEWS COMMENTARY — Refusing to allow any member of a standing-room-only crowd to speak and with no explanation for the refusal, Mayor Vanessa Fleisch Thursday night called for a vote to delay for the third time Great Wolf Lodge of Georgia’s request for rezoning and variances to turn the Dolce-Atlanta site on Aberdeen Parkway into a tourist-destination water park.
She got her vote, 4-to 1 against Councilman Eric Imker’s plea to stop “jerking the citizens around.” The public hearing was postponed until April 16.
Voting with the mayor were council members Mike King, Terry Ernst and Kim Learnard.
One citizen tried to bring a point of order to allow any of more than 100 residents seated and standing against the City Hall meeting room walls to speak. Mayor Fleisch refused, gaveling down at one point applause from the assembled citizens.
Imker said Great Wolf has had plenty of time to submit any revisions to the original plans — which received a unanimous negative vote from the Planning Commission in Mid-February.
“I’m ready to vote tonight,” Imker said.
King said the Great Wolf proposal was one of the largest economic “investments” to be considered in recent years in Fayette County, second only to the Pinewood-Atlanta Studios in Fayetteville and thus deserved a third delay before a final vote.
Learnard said the council “has never squelched” such requests for postponements in the past. “I want to hear their best offer,” she said. “But I support one more and no more.”
Fleisch agreed that the council has continued public hearings in the past.
Imker asked the council to at least give the citizens a chance to speak. Fleisch refused and called for the vote to end the council discussion.
Dozens of citizens got up and walked out after the vote, with one man walking up to the seated officials to complain about not being allowed to speak.
Other than Imker’s request that the people be heard, no other council member offered any explanation for quashing public feedback or even acknowledged the presence of more than 100 of their constituents in the room.
The next chance for the public to be heard about their opinion about the Great Wolf water park on Aberdeen Parkway will be April 16.
Click here for the full Great Wolf story and how the council got to this point Thursday night.
