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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-21-2001 Regular Meeting THE AUGUSTA COMMISSION MINUTES REGULAR MEETING August 21, 2001 Commission Chambers Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 2:00 p.m., Tuesday, August 21, 2001, the Honorable Bob Young, Mayor, presiding. Also present: Jim Wall, Attorney; George Kolb, Administrator; and Lena Bonner, Clerk of Commission. (Other matters taken up by the Commission) Mr. Mayor: Madame Clerk, let’s move on to item 39. We have quite a delegation here, and see if we can go ahead and dispense with that item. The Clerk: 39. Z-01-49 - A request for concurrence with the decision of the Augusta- Richmond County Planning Commission to approve a petition from Randolph Frails, Esq., on behalf of James Alvin Lewis, requesting a Special Exception in a B-2 (General Business) Zone to operate an adult entertainment establishment per Section 22-2 (b) of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance for Augusta-Richmond County affecting property located on the southwest right-of-way line of Damascus Road, 1,055 feet, more or less, northwest of the southwest corner of the intersection of Highland Avenue and Damascus Road. (DISTRICT 5) Mr. Mayor: Is the petitioner here today? Are there any objectors here today? Would you raise your hand? We’ll get a count. Mr. Wall: If y’all would keep your hands raised, I’d appreciate it. Mr. Mayor: You can remain seated. That’s fine. Just raise your hand. (32 objectors noted) Mr. Mayor: Thank you. You can put your hands down. Mr. Patty? Mr. Patty, if you would give the background on this and your recommendation. Mr. Patty: This property is currently B-2, General Business. And in order to conduct adult entertainment activities on the property, in addition the B-2 zoning it would have to have a Special Exception. The Zoning Ordinance has several objective criteria that in order to apply to have an application considered for this type, you have to meet. These are distance requirements from various types of facilities, parks, schools, churches, libraries, single-family homes, things of that nature. This particular location did, in fact, 2 meet those objective criteria. And that meant that the applicant had a right to make the application. He did, and the Planning Commission considered his application. There’s a subjective criteria that gives you the right to approve or deny, even if it meets the objective criteria, and that speaks about the sum total of the similar-type facilities. Actually, I could read that to you. Mr. Wall’s got it here. I think that’s what your decision boils down to, whether or not it conforms to the subjective criteria, and I’ll just read that for you, if I may. [Reading] “Special Exception may be denied when there is evidence that type and number of schools, churches, libraries, public or private recreational facilities, residential developments in the vicinity and location of proposed regulated use can cause minors to frequent the immediate area, even though there is compliance with the minimum distances provided herein.” I asked the Planning Commission at their pre-meeting to go out there and listen to both sides very carefully and to try to decide whether the objectors -- and we had a pretty good idea who they’re going to be -- whether their comments satisfied them that it would not comply with these conditions and therefore be a public detriment, or whether the benefit to the property owner, who did agree to do certain things to soften the impact of the use, such as begin the operation at 9 o’clock at night in the summertime, 7 o’clock at night other times of the year, not change the signage that’s currently on the property, no gaudy lighting or signage or anything of that nature that would indicate the actual use of the property beyond the name of the structure. Indicate, you know -- it’s conduct a balancing test that you do on any zoning case, and compare the detriment to the community, to the benefit of the property owner, and make a decision. And they did. And it was a split vote. And they recommend approval. Mr. Kuhlke: Mr. Mayor? Mr. Mayor: Mr. Kuhlke? Mr. Kuhlke: I’d like to move that we deny the request for a special exception based on the criteria within the ordinance. Mr. Shepard: Second. Mr. Mayor: We have a second to that motion. Is there anyone here who is representing the petitioner and would speak on behalf of the -- would anybody from the opposition care to speak for the record today? Yes, ma’am, if you’ll come to the podium here and give us your name and address for the record. Ms. Greene: Good afternoon to the panel. Good afternoon, citizens. My name is Pat Greene. I live at 527 Richmond Hill Road. I’m opposed to the petition for adult entertainment for this club. I’ve done a lot of legwork and researching this. It is in a neighborhood that houses a very large public complex for families, and these families are on government assistance. There is a public recreation facility that has just been established. There is also two public recreation golf course within the vicinity. Also, this club, Chew Choo, is our number one club for violence in our young black adults. The crime rate is basically tremendous in terms of no control, no respect for the children, and 3 no respect for the law here in Augusta. It is totally out of control. If statistics were to be examined, the number of adult and young adult and teenage fightings, shootings, stabbings occur more at this establishment than any other area of the city. I am totally against adult entertainment. Thank you. Mr. Mayor: Thank you. Any questions for the witness? Mr. Simon, give us your name and address for the record, please. Mr. Simon: Thank you. Paul Simon. 14 Highgate West, Augusta. I’m appearing here as Chairman of Fore! Augusta Foundation. And as all of you remember what Damascus Road used to be, and we’ve changed. You, the City, has spent a lot of money up there on the Aquatics Center. The changes that you’ve made in the golf course, the skate facility that you’ve just put up -- the skateboard facility that you’ve just put up there -- and we spent about $3 million on the First Tee project. But more important than that is we’ve got over 500 children who are part of our program. I don’t know how many people come to the Aquatics Center, children, kids, but we see that as a beginning. 500. Of that number, about 50% of that black and about 50% white. About 18% of those people are female. And we just don’t think this is an area, where we have all of these kids, that we need to have an adult entertainment facility. So we oppose it for that reason, and I hope you see it the same way. Thank you. Mr. Mayor: Thank you. Anyone? Yes? Don, give us your name and address for the record, please. Mr. Grantham: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I’m Don Grantham at 808 Quail Court. And I echo the feelings of Mr. Simon. I feel like that the City, and not only individuals, has spent a lot of money on Damascus Road, trying to create a light industrial park in an area up there in which we do have some tenants that are now there. They seem to be very good tenants. I go that way to work myself every day. I feel like that with Aquinas school, with Daniel Field, with the many young people’s facilities up there, the golf courses, it’s just an area that we do not need contaminated. And that’s what this would do to it. So I ask you, the Commissioners, to please vote against this petition. Thank you. Mr. Mayor: Anybody else? Mr. Owens? Mr. Owens: Brad Owens, 1562 Goshen Road. I’d like to thank Mr. Kuhlke for making the motion to deny and Steve Shepard for seconding it, and I would ask all the Commissioners to deny this based on the community standards. My nephews swim at the natatorium over there, sometimes well after dark, so I don’t think that if you put a time limit on it that’s going to help it, so I don’t think that that variance will work. I would like to say that you have lots of children and family oriented things that. You have the natatorium, which is the swim center there. You have the Patch, and you just spent a lot of money putting a children’s course of there, so there’s more kids there. You’ve got a church right around the corner. You have the skate park which will be open soon. There’s Newman Tennis Center. There’s Aquinas High School. Not to mention right 4 over the hill there there is Forest Hills Golf Course, and I’ve played it, and there’s plenty of children playing there all the time, all the way up to dark. So I would like to say that based on what I just heard Mr. Patty read, I don’t seen any way any of you could possibly vote for this, based on the number of children that are going to be around there and family oriented material. That area just got cleared up. It’s been put on the right path, it’s going in the right direction. I think this would be a step back. There’s plenty of property available in the area downtown where they already have establishments like this. If the person -- I am for small business, I’m a small business owner myself, and I want everybody to be able to earn a living. And if you choose to make it this way, that’s fine. But don’t do it where there’s children and where there’s families and where it’s going to hurt what’s going on, the good things that are going on. I ask each and every one of you to vote against this measure because it’s the right thing to do. Mr. Mayor, thanks. Mr. Mayor: Thank you. Mr. Kendrick? Give us your name and address for the record, please. Mr. Kendrick: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My name is James Kendrick. I live at 3279 Hillwood Lane. To you and the Commissioners, I, too, stand before you to ask that you vote against this measure. If we do it for no other reason, let’s do it for our children. There are seemingly far too many influences, particularly those that are negative, that enter their lives on a daily basis. They are having to make too many choices that are not necessarily in their best interest. You have an opportunity to help us help them. I stand before you today to ask that you do that. I’m a member of the Board of Directors of First Tee, which, as Paul has said, will bring a great number of young folks in that vicinity. Help us to help them. Please vote against this matter. Thank you. Mr. Mayor: Thank you. Anyone else? Sheriff? Mr. Strength: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I, too, am here in opposition of this club. I’ve been involved from the get-go here. I know we cannot come in here and get a vote on morals, the way we feel, what’s right or wrong, but still I think morals has to play a part in every decision we make. I am going to make a safety issue here, also. I assume everybody knows where the existing club is on Damascus Road. And I’ve been up there numerous times, especially on Friday and Saturday nights, where we have cars parked on both shoulders of the road, we have cars parked in the middle of the street for a hundred yards, nobody can pass either way, the congestion is absolutely -- it’s total bedlam up there. Give you an incident of what happened. We had a cutting up there sometime back. We couldn’t get an ambulance in there because of everybody in the middle of the street, in cars, on both shoulders of the road. I have now had signs put up on one side of the road -- “no parking” -- hoping to rectify this problem. Absolutely has not come close to rectifying it. We’re up there with wreckers on the weekend, pulling cars left and right. I don’t have the manpower to stay up there light that. You just have to go up there to see it, to actually visualize what I’m saying. But I agree with probably 95% of the folks in this room. We do not need that in Augusta. We’re trying to set standards here. I think we’re going backwards by doing that if we vote for it, and I, as well as the Sheriff’s Office, is definitely in opposition of granting this license. Thank you very much. 5 Mr. Mayor: Thank you, Sheriff. Anyone else? Let me just say, I don’t have a vote on this thing today, but I live closer to it than anyone who has spoken here today. I live on Lake Forest Drive, and I’m opposed to it, and I would appreciate the Commission sustaining the motion today to deny this. Any discussion, any debate, any comments? Mr. Henry, you want to say something? Mr. H. Brigham: I was going to move the order of the day. Mr. Mayor: Go ahead, Mr. Henry. Mr. H. Brigham: I was going to move the order of the day and we cast the votes. Mr. Mayor: All right. The question has been called. The Chair rules we have had adequate debate. Mr. Mays? Mr. Mays: Just for the purpose of fairness in the debate, because we’ve got one case on this issue in reference to -- since we’ve brought a lot of things into this already -- in terms of current management of the club and the traffic that’s there. And it’s not an item to be discussed today, but I really think that one thing that we may be overlooking is the fact that whatever happens with this -- and I think obviously it’s going to be turned down -- if there’s a major point of traffic congestion and cruising in that area, with two mainstream nightclubs there on Damascus Road, then maybe our next point that we ought to deal with is the fact that how are we going to eliminate what’s there? Because I mean you’re dealing on the issue today where you may deal with it morally on adult entertainment, but then again you’ve got two nightclubs, and you’ve got one that’s in question that whether you provide the adult side of it or not the nightclub is still going to be open. So I mean you’ve got that issue to still deal with. The other thing I was going to ask, with the Zoning Board, that they’ve already been through with the variance and that’s been denied, and which you have a case pending, Mr. Wall, right now on one side of this in Superior Court -- what does that do for us today? Cause obviously it’s incumbent upon the petitioner or the representative of the petitioner to represent themselves in terms of being here. And I just wanted to know to a point of obviously one case in court, do you move ahead, do you deal with it with the essence of time or moving it later, or how does that deal with our case, obviously since we’re going to deal with probably one case in court or two cases in court? Mr. Wall: The case that has been filed is a result of a second petition that was filed by Mr. Frails on behalf of his client. This dealt with a location on Deans Bridge Road. It was requesting a variance from the distance requirements, I believe to a residential residence, and that was turned down by the Board of Zoning Appeals. They have filed an appeal. The result of that case would only affect that location. It would not affect this Damascus Road location. Mr. Mays: I guess what I’m looking at, Mr. Mayor, is the fact that you’ve got the same owner in both locations, the petitioner. And make no mistake about it, this has 6 come before our Public Services Committee, and I sat in on that, and in fact, encouraged that if a petition was going to be filed, that it be filed, quite frankly, on the Deans Bridge Road location as opposed to the Damascus Road location. But it’s obviously something that we’re going to deal with, whether it’s one case in court or whether we’re going to deal with two cases in court. The other thing, Mr. Mayor, and I’m not going to take it upon myself to -- that’s what you hire legal representatives for -- the petitioner is not here, I can’t deal with where that’s coming from. I do think, for the record, we ought to make note that we have a petition that’s contained in our book that’s in opposition to it, as well as those that have raised their hands. I think in fairness for the record, we need to ask, though, whether a petition is to be presented on behalf of people that may be living in that area that may be in support of it, or that may be in the audience that are in support of it. We polled the audience in terms of the opposition. Mr. Mayor: We’ll take a poll now. Mr. Mays: I’m just saying in terms of essence of [inaudible] both ways. Mr. Mayor: Let’s do that. And Mr. Brigham has asked us to move along with the order of the day. Let’s have a show of hands of those who are in favor of this adult entertainment establishment in this neighborhood. Keep your hand up so it gets counted. The record will reflect that number. (29 supporters noted) Mr. Mayor: The question has been called on the motion from Mr. Kuhlke to deny the approval of the petition. All in favor of that motion, please vote aye. Mr. Mays abstains. Motion carries 9-1. Mr. Mayor: All right. Let’s move on with our consent agenda then. For the interest of those who are here, the petition was just denied. The request for the adult club there has been turned down. (Other matters taken up by the Commission) Mr. Mayor: At the point, the Chair would like to revisit item number 39 for the purpose of allowing the petitioner, Mr. Randolph Frails, who arrived in the Chamber late today, to make a statement to enter it into the record. Mr. Wall, did you want to comment? Mr. Wall: I would ask that the Commission allow him to put whatever he wants to in the record to be considered in conjunction with item number -- Mr. Mayor: 39. 7 Mr. Wall: 39. He apparently was under the impression that this was -- that this item was coming up at three o’clock, and for that reason was not present earlier. Mr. Mayor: All right. Mr. Frails, if you’ll come to the podium, please, and give us your name and address for the record, please. Mr. Frails: My name is Randolph Frails. I live at 4659 Wellington Court in Evans, Georgia 30809. I’m here on behalf of the petitioner, Mr. James Lewis, doing business as [inaudible]. Mr. Lewis’ petition was item number 39 on the agenda. And first of all, firstly let me say, and let me say it with quite a bit of conviction, it disturbs me greatly that we did not get an opportunity to be heard. I’m certainly not going to try and point a finger at the Commission or point a finger at the Mayor, but I’m sure that my office received a notice and we found that notice odd, that we were supposed to be here at three o’clock. We’ve subsequently checked that against the agenda item, which is agenda item 39, which in our opinion made sense. We were supposed to be here at three o’clock and we were here promptly at three. To move us ahead of the agenda and to move us to number one, when the petitioner is not here and nor is his attorney here, disturbs me. Certainly we cannot tell the Commission how to conduct their business. They can conduct it in any way that they desire, but when the petitioner is not present, nor is his lawyer not present, and then to go forward with an issue as serious as this, it disturbs me. It give me an impression that the Commission had no intention of allowing the petitioner to be properly heard and to fully discuss the issues. Finally, I’d like to get to the petition. We filed the petition in earnestness, and we filed it in good faith. We filed this petition with the intent of complying with the law. And that’s all we wanted the Commission to do, was to comply with the law. The law specifically says that in order for him to operate an adult entertainment establishment, he must be 1,250 feet from a residential dwelling; 1,000 feet from any public library; 1,000 feet from any church, shrine, chapel; 1,205 feet from a college campus; 1,000 feet from a school bus stop; 1,250 feet from any other regulated use. He meets those requirements. Certainly with us not being present, we don’t know what the Commission hung their hat on, but we would surmise to say you hung your hat on B-2, item 7, that a Special Exception may be denied where there is evidence that the type and number of schools, churches, libraries, public and private recreational facilities, and residential developments in the vicinity of the location of proposed regulated use can cause minors to frequent the immediate area, even though there is compliance with the minimum distance requirements. We suppose that that’s what you hung your hat on. We put forth to the Commission that that particular item, he even meets those requirements. Certainly there is no evidence that indicates that minor frequent the Damascus Road location presently. There is no evidence that there are schools or churches in the immediate vicinity. The nearest school, church is over half a mile away. So he meets all the requirements. As to why you all disapproved his request, we’re not absolutely certain. But we feel that he met the requirements, and we feel that your decision today was arbitrary and capricious, violates his Constitutional rights, and also violates his equal protection of rights, violates his rights under the Georgia Constitution and violates his rights under the U.S. Constitution. With deep regrets, we will have to take this a little bit farther. We certainly did not want to do that. And we didn’t want to do that because earlier Mr. Lewis had filed a petition to locate his 8 club at the Deans Bridge Road location. He did that after much talk and discussion with Zoning people and talk with individual Commissioners, hoping that that would be approved. He was summarily denied for the Deans Bridge Road location. Consequently, we’ve moved to the Damascus Road location that does meet the requirements. There has been some talk that he needs to be downtown. Well, there are five clubs downtown, the Discotheque, the Marine Room, the Fantasy’s, Joker’s, and Baby Dolls. All of those clubs downtown do not meet the Special Exception requirement. All of them are within 1,250 feet of residential areas, they’re within 1,250 feet of churches, they’re within 1,250 feet of libraries. Certainly if the Commission feels that they have a bad law -- maybe the law should be changed. Maybe that’s what the Commission should do. But to just abrogate and not apply the law as is written, we feel like you’re violating his rights. You’re violating the rights of an individual in deference to the rights of the entire population, and it’s based primarily on moral and religious grounds, and it really has nothing to do with law. Thank you. Mr. Mayor: Thank you. Mr. Frails, the Chair will just point out to you, just as a matter of fact, that this Commission typically, where we have a lot of people here for an item, will move them, will move the items on the agenda around to accommodate them. And as far as your client not showing when the item was called, the same thing was true with the item preceding that, item 38, which was take up later in the meeting and the petitioner was not here for that. So your client has not been singled out today at all by any deception of this body in the order in which we took up items on this agenda. It’s a matter of practice, the way we do it that way. Mr. Wall? Mr. Wall: I would also point out that the notice that was sent out by the Planning and Zoning Commission did indicate that the meeting was going to be on August 21 at two o’clock p.m. I would also point out that a lot of the supporters were here on your behalf as well. But the notice did indicate two o’clock, and I will furnish a copy of that to the Clerk and would ask that that be made a part of the record. Mr. Mayor: And your statement will be made a part of the record of these proceedings, too. Mr. Frails: Thank you. Mr. Mayor: Thank you. Lena J. Bonner Clerk of Commission CERTIFICATION : I, Lena J. Bonner, Clerk of Commission hereby certify that the above is a true and correct copy of an Excerpt regarding Item #39, from the regular meeting of the Augusta Richmond County Commission held August 21, 2001.