State seeks more than $540K in legal fees from Rivian factory opponents

John Christy, the attorney for the six property owners, sees the fee demands as pure intimidation.

“It’s really to put the fear of God into these poor citizens to sit down, shut up and stop bothering us,” Christy said. “And if you don’t, we’re going to squash you like a bug.”

Rivian’s factory plans were first made public in December 2021.

It was touted by Gov. Brian Kemp and local leaders as the state’s largest-ever jobs deal. It’s since been eclipsed by Hyundai’s EV plant near Savannah.

Rivian said it would employ 7,500 workers and invest $5 billion into the plant in southern Morgan and Walton counties. The project was originally going to be completed in 2024, but has been delayed multiple times. Company officials now say vertical construction will begin in 2026 with vehicle production in 2028.

State and local officials offered Rivian a $1.5 billion incentive package, much of which was a local property tax break spread across a decade.

While advertised as the East Atlanta Mega Site, the land was zoned for agricultural and residential use. The state and JDA in early 2022 assumed ownership of the 2,000-acre project site, and local zoning typically doesn’t apply to government-owned land. Project critics argued the state was averting a potentially challenging rezoning vote.

Lawsuits soon took flight.

In 2022, Morgan County Judge Stephen Bradley declined to issue a stop-work order to prevent site grading, saying the request was “clearly a machination not to redress an irreparable harm, but to stop the construction of the Rivian production plant.”

Christy’s clients withdrew the lawsuit in December 2022.

A month later, they refiled nearly identical lawsuits in both Fulton and Morgan counties, to individually sue the state and county. The state and JDA would eventually intervene in the Morgan case, which Christy said is notable given they’re trying to recoup litigation costs in that case.

“It’s kind of like somebody swimming out to the Titanic and being pissed off they drowned,” Christy said. “They joined the case voluntarily.”

The Morgan County Board of Commissioners, also involved in that lawsuit, is not seeking attorneys fees.

Throughout the zoning legal fight, judges have voiced their skepticism that the residents would prevail.

Bradley, who also oversees the latest Morgan case, wrote after the refile that “attempting to enforce local restrictions on state property, the main thrust of this litigation, appears to this court to have a relatively low chance of ultimately prevailing at trial.”

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox Jr., who oversees the Fulton case, ruled that lawsuit was frivolous and unlikely to succeed in 2023, ordering the plaintiffs to prepay nearly $365,000 to continue the lawsuit. The prepaid fees were overturned on appeal, even though the zoning aspect of the lawsuit was ultimately unsuccessful.

A 9 a.m. Wednesday hearing in Morgan County will be the first held to debate the state’s request for attorneys fees. A hearing in Fulton County has yet to be scheduled.

The state and JDA say it’s prudent to pursue attorneys fees as stewards of public funds. The money, if awarded, will be disbursed to the four-county JDA area for education, infrastructure and public service initiatives, the agencies said.

Kara Murray, spokesperson for Attorney General Chris Carr’s office, reiterated that sentiment.

“This wasn’t a legitimate challenge to a public matter,” she said. “It was an attempt to delay economic development by filing several meritless lawsuits against the State — costing taxpayer dollars. All of these claims were unsuccessful, and the State is now seeking to recoup those taxpayer funds.”

With approval from Carr’s office, the state Department of Economic Development and JDA hired private law firms to assist with the cases.

“The right team was put together to ensure success for a generational project that would benefit countless Georgians,” a Department of Economic Development spokesperson said.

Christy questioned why those outside lawyers — who are more costly than in-house attorneys — were needed to fight purportedly frivolous cases. He said the state is “claiming that our position was so frivolous and the law was so clear that it took them half-a-million dollars and a muscle load of lawyers to try and figure it out.”

The Morgan residents have sought donations for their legal efforts, including a recent GoFundMe related to the attorneys fees request. As of Monday morning, the group had raised about $43,000 of its $1 million goal.

Griffiths, the First Amendment expert, warned a ruling against the property owners would “have an enormously chilling effect.”

“Democracy is messy, and sometimes it’s a little expensive,” he said. “But in this particular case, this is where public participation is being challenged by the agencies that the citizens were trying to stand up to.”