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Two more Hammond Drive lots purchased for road widening BY JOHN RUCH johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
The Sandy Springs City Council on March 1 approved spending almost $840,000 to buy two more Hammond Drive properties as placeholders for a long-planned street widening. The burst of land purchases for a road project that is years away, if it happens at all, is making local residents “extremely concerned,” said Councilman Graham McDonald. He and Councilman Tibby DeJulio were slated to meet with residents March 2. Councilman Andy Bauman suggested maintaining a house involved in the latest deal as affordable rental housing for Sandy Springs police officers or firefighters. McDonald said the city promised to tear down any such homes, but Trisha Thompson, president of the Sandy Springs Council of Neighborhoods, spoke in support of Bauman’s idea.
In February, the city authorized spending $375,000 to buy a residential lot at 590 Hammond. City Manager John McDonough called it a “protective buy” to secure right of way as infill housing makes property costs skyrocket. McDonough said at the time that the city might make more such purchases. Now the city will acquire residential properties at 372 Hammond and 521 Hammond following a unanimous March 1 council vote. The roughly half-acre lot at 372 Hammond, at the intersection with Harleston Road, is the midst of a tear-down redevelopment for what city officials say is a $979,000 house. The city negotiated to buy the property for a half-million dollars. The site will be cleaned up and maintained as a grassy lot, council members said. The 521 Hammond house is on the market, listed at $350,000, city of-
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ficial said, adding that it can be acquired for $338,000. Bauman suggested renting that house in the meantime to police officers or firefighters. The council previously discussed the general issue of such public safety officials being unable to afford living in the city they served. The council’s vote was only about purchasing the properties, not their future uses. “We don’t want to make this a dormitory,” Bauman said, but added, “Is there a way we can find a police fami-
Ten-year lawsuit against adult businesses won by city BY JOHN RUCH johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
Sandy Springs has won a decade-old federal lawsuit that alleged its code restrictions on adult businesses are unconstitutional. That means an adult bookstore and two strip clubs must move or shut down unless they file and win an appeal, city officials said. “Ten long years we had to litigate the case,” said City Attorney Wendell Willard, announcing the verdict at the March 1 Sandy Springs City Council meeting just hours after a judge delivered the “105-page decision upholding the city’s position on every point.” The plaintiffs—the bookstore Inserection and the strip clubs Flashers and Mardi Gras—have 20 days to appeal the verdict, Willard said, adding, “I’d be very surprised if they didn’t.” “We are still reviewing the opinion,” said Cary Wiggins, an attorney for the businesses. “We know the court put tremendous effort into the case, but, respectfully, we just view the law differently. So we’ll press on.” The case began in 2006, when the businesses challenged new city codes suggested by Scott Bergthold, a Tennessee attorney who specializes in municipal laws cracking down on sexually oriented businesses. The codes aimed to ban the sale of booze—a major source of revenue—in
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strip clubs and to place strong zoning restrictions on where such businesses could operate. The businesses filed suit in federal district court, claiming the city was violating the First and 14th Amendments. The city tweaked its codes several times while the lawsuit was pending, including a change last year to allow adult businesses in more areas, which contributed to the length of the court battle. In her March 1 opinion, U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May ruled that the city was not violating the Constitution. The city is still facing two other lawsuits about its adult-business restrictions. A challenge from another strip club, the Main Stage/Coronet Club, is still pending in Fulton County Superior Court, Willard said. And another suit filed by Inserection challenging the city’s obscenity law, which bans the sale of sex toys, was recently won by the city, but is under appeal, Willard said. Meanwhile, the City Council on March 1 approved another of Bergthold’s legal ideas: a code change that allows the city to seek the shutdown of massage parlors that offer illegal sexual services as “public nuisances.” The code will allow a court to order an injunction against landlords even on the property itself, possibly removing the zoning that allows the massage parlor use, according to Assistant City Attorney Cecil McLendon.
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ly?...We got a house in good shape…I’m not ready to authorize tearing it down.” McDonald replied that the city previously “made assurances to the surrounding neighborhood that we would be tearing [any purchased houses] down.” But Thompson said she believes the community is concerned about lowerquality rental houses. “I do think Mr. Bauman should have had more support” for his public safety housing idea, she said.
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