College Park councilman’s botanical garden draws praise and skepticism
As College Park officials held a ceremonial groundbreaking for a botanical garden on Thursday, critics are questioning the city’s allotment of more than $13 million for a project they say is moving forward without enough transparency.
Additionally, the city violated state law in its effort to acquire a property for the botanical garden through eminent domain, according to the property owner’s attorneys. The city denies any violation.
Supporters of the project, including the chair of Fulton County’s Board of Commissioners, say the botanical garden will be a transformative amenity for south Fulton that bodes well for its future.
Critics are characterizing the “Roderick Gay Botanical Garden” as a taxpayer-funded personal monument to its namesake — a sitting City Council member who is seeking reelection to a fourth term, and is viewed by some residents as a controversial figure.
College Park Mayor Bianca Motley Broom characterized the planned botanical garden as “a single council member’s pet project, one that bears his name with a nonprofit conservancy also bearing his name and no clear independent oversight.”
Fulton County Commissioner Mo Ivory, whose District 4 includes the project site, said she shares the concerns of Motley Broom and some residents that the Roderick Gay Conservancy was created and funded without much community input and is “under the control of one council member.”
Ivory said residents have told her the process “feels very much like a money grab” for the conservancy.
“They don’t know who will be managing the money, who will be on the board of this conservancy, how people will get onto the board, how money will be allocated,” Ivory said in an interview Thursday.
Gay brushed aside the project’s detractors in an interview before the groundbreaking, characterizing them as only “15 people from Ward 1″ in a city of about 13,000 people.
Mayor Pro Tem Jamelle McKenzie said City Council members will not sit on the conservancy’s board, though they will appoint members to it.
“So it is taking another degree of separation away from the City Council members,” McKenzie said of the conservancy. “Without the conservancy, it would be in the hands of the politicians.”
College Park officials said the project is the realization of a vision Gay has had for decades to bring a world-class green space to south Fulton County.
“What you may not know is that I’ve been a gardener all my life,” Gay told a crowd of more than 80 people at the groundbreaking. “When kids were playing football, I was growing coleuses in a greenhouse that my dad built me.”
Some residents of College Park are skeptical of the project, in part because they already see a litany of reasons to question their elected leaders’ handling of taxpayer funds. Heated disagreements between Motley Broom and council members about the city’s spending regularly spill out during public meetings.
To name one point of contention, each council member and the mayor have a $900,000 “community enhancement” fund for this year, an amount that critics say is way too much and allows elected officials to spend heavily with little accountability.
Residents also say their elected officials blur the lines between campaigning and governing. Last month, Gay organized a festival for which the city allocated more than $200,000. His name and slogan appeared across the top of the stage, and City Manager Lindell Miller told the crowd to vote for Gay against his opponent, Steve Alexander, in next week’s election.
In doing so, Miller violated a section in the employee handbook prohibiting staff from taking part in local politics, according to Motley Broom. The city manager declined to comment.
The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office is investigating after receiving “a plethora of complaints” surrounding the festival related to use of public funds and “electoral boundaries,” a spokesperson said.
The state Ethics Commission also confirmed it has received a complaint.
As for the Roderick Gay Botanical Garden, Ivory said it should be named the “College Park Botanical Gardens” instead.
“I will never be in favor of elected officials naming things after themselves,” Ivory said. “I don’t think it’s necessary. I don’t think when you’re serving that you should be self-serving. If you’re doing a project, it’s a project for the people.”
At the groundbreaking, Ivory praised the planned botanical garden as “a sanctuary for learning, healing and for inspiration.”
Fulton County Commission Chair Robb Pitts said in an interview that the botanical garden will be a boon for south Fulton, which he said has fewer amenities than the city of Atlanta and north Fulton.
“I just think this is a fantastic project for College Park, and I just hope that everybody will get behind it and see it for what it can be,” Pitts said.
A road at the botanical garden will be named after Pitts, city officials announced Thursday.
Earlier this year, Fulton County agreed to lease more than 30 acres off Herschel Road to College Park for the botanical garden, at $1 per year over 50 years. Pitts sponsored the resolution, which was unanimously approved.
Fulton Commissioner Marvin S. Arrington Jr., whose District 5 includes part of College Park, said in an interview that the board might not have supported the project if the concerns of Motley Broom and other critics had come up when commissioners voted on the lease.
College Park has allotted $10.4 million for the botanical garden and created the nonprofit conservancy to develop, operate and promote the garden, according to a resolution to establish the conservancy.
For the conservancy, the city also allotted $500,000 in startup funds and $650,000 per year through 2030.
City officials said the botanical garden will have walking trails, an educational center and two remodeled historic cabins for a welcome center and library-bookstore, providing resources on local ecology, conservation and history. It will include a fountain and an amphitheater, among other features.
The project also will boost economic development and beautify College Park, officials said.
In addition to the land College Park is leasing from the county, the City Council moved Oct. 20 to acquire a 21-acre property owned by a Texas developer for the botanical garden project through eminent domain, despite objections by the landowner’s lawyer.
The attorney, Ashlynn Hutton, said she hopes the city will pay a fair market price for the property at 4122 Herschel Road, and negotiate in good faith.
Hutton said the city offered her client $1.75 million, which was less than the $2.16 million an appraiser gave the property in April. An August appraisal for the city valued the property at $1.54 million, she said.
The city refused the property owner’s counteroffer of $3 million, Hutton said.
Wallace Washington, an attorney representing the city in the matter, said at the Oct. 20 meeting that the city’s offer of $1.75 million was “above and beyond” the amount of the August appraisal.
In the cases of both appraisals, Hutton said the city failed to invite the property owner to be present while the land was being appraised, which she said is a violation of state law.
Washington said the city fulfilled all of its legal obligations and gave the property owner notice two times in August of the appraisal.
Hutton and her law partner, Christian Torgrimson, also said state law requires that a city demonstrate a public purpose for a property to condemn it.
“No plans have been provided, no concept designs, no overlays — anything that shows what our client’s property is needed for as part of the botanical gardens,” Hutton said during the meeting. “That is highly unusual.”
“Something doesn’t smell right,” Torgrimson said in a later interview.
Gay said there is a plan for the property and that Hutton “didn’t really have a lot of facts.” He added that the land was a vacant apartment property when he moved to the area in 1998, and that the developer who purchased the land hasn’t made any improvements.
“The city,” he said, “offered an appraised cost to acquire, to expand this amazing garden.”
About the Author
Reed Williams is an enterprise reporter on the Local team at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
