Shady history behind plans Walmart in downtown Athens

Nov 22, 2011 2 Comments ›› Dustin

For those interested in the recent history of speculation about the downtown riverfront Armstrong & Dobbs property (soon to be Selig’s Wal-Mart shopping center) and how our local officials engaged in illegal secret negotiations and dropped the ball to abandon the vision for a public/private development strategy leaving it wide open for outside interests & corporate big box, start with this ABH article from Dec. 2010:
http://onlineathens.com/stories/121410/new_756173159.shtml

Then move on to this editorial from Feb. 2011:
http://onlineathens.com/stories/022011/bus_788140880.shtml

And then this article from March:
http://onlineathens.com/stories/032011/bus_802404276.shtml

This July article covers the miscommunication, ball-dropping, stalling, and seemingly shady back-door dealings that appeared to have been going on all along. Our elected leadership clearly failed this community:
http://onlineathens.com/stories/072411/new_861474752.shtml

Then this one from August:
http://onlineathens.com/stories/081011/new_869248437.shtml

This one from early September:
http://onlineathens.com/stories/090411/opi_881041835.shtml

Then this editorial from a couple weeks later:
http://onlineathens.com/stories/092511/bus_890391578.shtml

Then reports/denials of a possible Wal-Mart on the property from Sept. 30:
http://onlineathens.com/stories/093011/new_892646234.shtml

And then revelation of the illegal secret maneuvers of our local government appointed body that killed the project leaving the property open for the current development proposal. This appears to make clear grounds for a lawsuit against our own government:
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2011-10-16/edf-board-met-secret-kill-river-district

Perhaps what is even more disturbing than the likelihood of a Wal-Mart settling into downtown are the illegal, secret, closed-door dealings among our local elected and appointed officials that allowed this to happen. At the very least, the ACC government could have used the time to implement appropriate design guidelines for this area as rumors of a Wal-Mart ran rampant for weeks before they relinquished control. It leads one to suspect that someone with significant sway on the EDF knew this was coming all along…..