Voter approval

won't be needed to help fund the $2.5 million final phase of the Peachtree

City Tennis Center.

Instead, the

City Council has chosen to pay for the financing of the expansion using

a program from the Georgia Municipal Association's Bricks and Mortar Progam,

with payments coming from the recent increase in the hotel-motel tax.

But that decision didn't come easily at last week's council meeting when

Councilman Steve Rapson spoke out against the project.

After learning

the project has been on the drawing board for some time and has been approved

the financing of the project. The action gave Mayor Bob Lenox the authority

to sign an intergovernmental agreement with the Development Authority

covering how funds from the hotel-motel tax increase would be spent.

In a 1999 survey,

citizens ranked a tennis center expansion as 13th on a list of 15 choices,

Rapson said during the spirited discussion. Also, the project was never

part of the five-year recreation master plan, he added.

Based on those

reasons, and the perception that the expansion was brokered "behind

closed doors," Rapson said he thought the matter should be put before

voters on the bond referendum.

Lenox vehemently

disputed the expansion was planned in secret. Other council members concurred

that the process took place at public meetings.

Former councilman

Robert Brooks, who was replaced by Rapson after he resigned in February,

explained that the expansion has been discussed for seven or eight years

and was always on the drawing board.

The proposed

expansion would add six new covered courts, which will allow the center

to host college tournaments and other more significant events. An office

building is also planned to house the center's staff since it currently

rents some office space off-site. The office facility would also have

room for another tenant such as a regional tennis organization.

Lenox argued

that the planning process was public and newspapers have written stories

about the plans. If council were to vote against using the newly raised

hotel motel tax funds to fund payments on the project, Lenox said he would

move to rescind the 2 percent hike in the tax.

Lenox said

he was instructed by council at its annual retreat to meet with hotel

and motel operators in the city and her garnered their support for raising

the hotel-motel tax based on the out-of-town visitors the expansion would

draw to the city. Lenox also reported the results