Atlanta City Hall is scrambling to reverse itself on the renaming of a downtown street for one of the city's favorite sons because it might just have violated the law.
Three weeks ago, the City Council bucked opposition from the Urban Design Commission and neighborhood and historic preservation groups and voted 9-5 to honor developer and architect John Portman by renaming Harris Street for him.
Since then, the city law department has introduced legislation to ask the council to repeal the vote after a lawsuit was filed challenging the renaming and got an injunction stopping it from going forward until a Superior Court hearing July 15.
The proposed legislation said the council needs to repeal the renaming to "cure" issues raised by the lawsuit, which said the council violated city law governing street namings and the state Open Meetings Law was violated in the process.
Council President Ceasar Mitchell said he expected the council would bow to the law's department's legal concerns at a council meeting this month.
“We’re going to allow the law department to monitor the process and make sure every step of the process is followed,” said Mitchell, one of the strongest advocates for the renaming and who had previously insisted all legal steps had been followed. He said some oversights had surfaced.
The law department's legislation said the council could vote again on the renaming at its July 18 meeting.
Boyd Coons, executive director of the Atlanta Preservation Center which spearheaded the lawsuit, said the issue then will be whether the council will insist that the Portman Commission -- a group of private individuals named by the council -- find a way to honor Portman other than naming a street after him. The preservation center opposes the renamings because they often result in erasing the names of people who founded the city -- and it's been an ongoing issue for years.
"These streets are our evidence of our earliest history,” Coons said
For instance John Wesley Dobbs Avenue, named for the civic and political leader dubbed the "Mayor of Auburn Avenue," replaced Houston Street, which was named after the city's first treasurer; International Boulevard -- before it became Andrew Young International Boulevard -- replaced Cain Street, named after John Cain, a pioneer; and most notably, Peachtree Center -- named for one of Portman's developments -- replaced Ivy Street, named after pioneer Hardy Ivy.
“He is considered to be the earliest settler,” Coons said. “I find it extraordinary that you wouldn't want to honor the person who starts your city.”
The controversy this time erupted when it was proposed to rename two relatively nondescript streets, Cone Street, named for Reuben Cone, a judge and founder of Atlanta, for media pioneer and executive Xernona Clayton, and Harris Street, named after Fulton County's first legislator, for the 86-year-old Portman.
The downtown neighborhood associations have strongly objected to more street renamings because they say they are rarely consulted and they find renaming the streets one of the most intrusive measures for honoring people.
The commission the council appointed to find a way to honor Clayton compromised with the neighborhood associations and found another way to honor Clayton.
About the Author
