Atlanta sprawls downward

Guest columnist Janelle Broome

November 18, 2007 12:08 am

— As a native of Arlington, Georgia, between Albany and Blakely, I understand fairly well your feelings about the bloated behemoth called Atlanta, as you stated in the article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
My husband moved to metro Atlanta to head up and partner with a firm who has designed the Georgia Dome, Olympic Stadium (now Turner Field), arenas, prisons, libraries and many other edifices in this great state and in the country, and followed shortly thereafter. 20 years ago, Sugar Hill was a small isolated community between Suwannee and Buford off of I-85. We chose the area, 35 miles north of downtown Atlanta, to get away from the rat race and the traffic nightmares, but Atlanta has moved to us and way beyond.
I have relatives who still farm the land in Leesburg, Arlington, Tifton, Sylvester, Moultrie, Blakely. I fully understand their feelings from their perspectives on life in Georgia and upon their state’s capitol.
For the most part, I agree with your statements in the article, but I take exception, whether you can or not, to your statement which included “greedy constituents complaining...”
My husband, Joe, and I have never failed to vote and rarely miss our community’s monthly meetings. If it were possible, to watch other monthly meetings from surrounding communities on the public access channels you would be enlightened and educated. Meeting after meeting, as many as 90 percent of the adult voting communities attend — all of one mind — to say “No” to development. There have been heartfelt (and heartbroken) speeches made, and pleadings, prayers and petitions offered to our local county commissioners to stop the development (how many strip/shopping malls are really needed?) These meetings have been held with armed policemen at the doors, but I have never seen any citizen behave in anything but a most civilized way. We were unfortunate to have one Wayne Hill, Chairman of the Gwinnett Board of County Commissioners and ARC, for a long time that was finally voted out — he is known as the “Sultan of Sprawl” and avidly advocated “Atlanta the next Los Angeles East!”
Each small town board of commissioners lets its citizens have their democratic say, but changed the rule to include requirements for speaking (two minutes) and to be signed up in advance (some, two weeks). At these meetings no one else may speak. Many times developments were “tabled for further study,” but like the U.S. Senate voting themselves a raise at 2 a.m., the developments were already a done deal. High density housing brings in more revenue than a small farm.
Citizens all over metro Atlanta have protested, pleaded, begged and cried to no avail.
“Greedy constituents,” not so. No one who is decent chooses to live in an asphalt, concrete and smog-filled jungle of cookie-cutter housing on scraped-bare land.
Greedy overbuilding, but by developers, I heartily concur with, but sad to say, approximately 55 acres are still being scraped bare here each day in metro Atlanta.
Now, if we can just retire in another year and return to South Georgia, with the drought not withstanding, we’ll help you fight the unplanned bloated behemoth and “We will not let it suck our ground and pockets dry.”
It will take men and women who will stand up on their hind legs and truly fight.

• Guest columnist Janelle Broome resides in Sugar Hill, Ga.