Deer forage on the City Duck Pond, part of 60 acres of wetlands and floodplain that is slated for development as a regional shopping center.
In the recent blog about the Georgia Water Coalition’s Dirty Dozen we noted how the various corporate polluters on the Dirty Dozen list are examples of the national discontent over the failure of the American political-economic system that has come under fire from groups as diverse as the Occupy Wall Street protestors and the Tea Party.
Sadly, here in Rome we have a shining example of the failed system that has generated so much national anger. It is the story of 60 acres of land bisected by Burwell Creek that sits at the corner of Turner McCall Drive and Riverside Parkway. The story includes tales of a federal bureaucracy overstepping its authority, of laws manipulated by insiders and of ordinary citizens getting the shaft. Warning: If you don’t want get angry; read no further.
Best known as the home of the “Duck Pond,” the Burwell Creek Property is the only land in the Turner McCall/Shorter Ave. corridor that remains undeveloped. As you might guess, its location at a major intersection makes it highly valuable in the eyes of commercial developers. If it did not sit squarely in the floodplain and contain acres of wetlands as well as an abandoned city landfill, it would have been developed long ago.
Because of these unique conditions everyone assumed the land would remain in its current forested state—especially given that it sits between the city’s premiere park (Ridge Ferry Park) and historic Jackson Hill, another city-owned greenspace. In the late 1980s, the city had plans to create additional wetlands and wildlife habitat on the property. In fact, the Federal Highway Administration approved the widening of Riverside Parkway, in part, because it believed the wetlands and floodplain on the property would remain.
Fast forward to 2001 when the city commissioned a study of its Jackson Hill property, looking at how to use the land as a city park. The study recommended the creation of a “Central Park” stretching from Jackson Hill, through the Burwell Creek property, and on to Ridge Ferry Park.
But in 2005, local developer, Ledbetter Properties, approached the city with a plan to build a shopping center on the land. It was a bold—some might say far-fetched—proposal given the environmental issues associated with the property. Nevertheless, the City Commission approved the plan and Ledbetter Properties was set loose to obtain federal environmental permits that would make the development possible.
The company spent more than $1 million and three years later secured the permits. Here’s where the story takes an interesting turn. Ordinarily, if a developer is building on top of more than a half acre of wetlands or is disturbing more than 300 feet of streams, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) allows the public to review the development plans.
This project involved filling four acres of wetlands and relocating more than 2700 feet of Burwell Creek—all of it on publicly-owned land—yet the Corps approved this project without ever notifying the public. No one—not even an elected city official or city staff member, had the opportunity to review plans prior to the Corps’ approval.
What’s more, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), which reviewed Ledbetter Properties’ permit application, advised the Corps that a public notice and comment period should be required and questioned whether the project should be classified as a “Brownfield”—a status that would provide tax benefits to the developer because of existing environmental contamination associated with the old city landfill.
This excerpt from a May 2008 letter from EPA to the Corps of Engineers shows EPA's objection to the classification of this project as a Brownfield redevelopment.
Inexplicably, the Corps not only approved the project without public input, it approved it based on the assumption that USEPA was “sponsoring” the project as a Brownfield re-development.
How this happened remains something of a puzzle, but perhaps it’s another story to which America’s angry millions can relate: the “system” gets manipulated; a federal agency is unresponsive to the public and a public asset is converted for corporate gain—and the corporation gets a tidy tax break too boot.
With this going on, it’s no wonder we’re mad. It’s time the feds listened to ordinary Romans, including the more than 1000 that have signed a petition opposing this project. Anyone for a tea party at Burwell Creek or an Occupy Wetlands encampment?
