We have watched over the past

six months an almost comical show mismanagement and misinformation. First,

the only two people from the city to sign off on the "approved"

plan were the city attorney and the city's traffic consultant and they

were not present at the council meeting for questioning.

Second, GDOT expressed a desire

to pull the plug on the traffic signal at The Avenues. Previously in 1999

GDOT stated that they would not remove the traffic signal at Huddleston

Road (Be very wary of that promise, Huddleston Road small business owners!).

A little kicking and screaming and The Avenues got the signal back. The

developer of The Avenue signed an agreement with the city that stated

that they would perform several road mitigation projects, erect the infamous

traffic signal and link a long line of signals with fiber optic technology

before they could gain a certificate of occupancy. We can assume that

development agreements are made to be broken. It was the exact same situation

with the Summit Apartments across the street.

Third, the GDOT has made some

very significant changes to the Wal-Mart mitigation plan. GDOT Engineer

Marion Waters stated that the proposed "'through lanes' are forbidden

to keep Atlanta's air quality statistics in check"(Citizen, April

20). This is the exact point that I tried in vain to make to the city

council in 1999 and 2000.

Obviously, we no longer have

the same mitigation plan and we never had official GDOT approval so Councilmember

Fritz or Mayor Lenox should recall the matter before the city council

(only members on the winning side of the vote can recall such things).

Will they do it?

Keep in mind that we are speaking

of the same mayor that stated at the April 19 city council meeting that

even if his constituents voted against the bond issues that he would still

go ahead with some of the projects! He alluded that he had no problem

telling us what we needed and implementing it also. I cannot help but

wonder if the mayor will cite the city's archaic master plan (the one

that called for 70,000 residents and skyscrapers) as the reason for justifying

the projects as he did with the big box stores.

Most of the decisions regarding

the Wal-Mart project have been made outside of the public forum in some

far-off back room. Let's be in favor of openness in government and let's

also be for preserving our quality of life.

Steve Brown

Peachtree City

[email protected]

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