O-A News, you're on notice! You sent a reporter to the Auburn City Council meeting and she came back with this story.The only problems is, that she could have filed that story without attending the meeting at all.
Sure the smoking ban passed. That was a foregone conclusion. It passed in five minutes, without discussion.
Most of the remainder of the three hour meeting was spent in some heated debate on the future of Shell Toomer Parkway. On one side of the issue sat interim City Manager Charles Duggan, Planning Director Forrest Cotten and the developers, Jimmy and Billy Cleveland. On the other side was most of the assembled citizenry.
The reporter writes of the "nearly 30" from "nearby" south-side neighborhoods, but fails to mention the man from West Auburn who rose to speak of how developers had made similar promises, but fouled a creek near his home... or the man from the north side of town who had fished Lake Auburn for many years and is concerned about downstream runoff of lawn fertilizer, auto chemicals and pesticides that 400-500 houses and condos will bring to the area.
She didn't mention the carloads of college students, perhaps only attending for class credit, who quickly took sides in the debate. Maybe the reporter is not familiar with Auburn and was unaware that many of those who spoke were from other more distant neighborhoods.
But even all that was predictable, as was the 6-2 vote to approve the rezoning. Developers lose in the Auburn City Council about as often as the Harlem Globetrotters lose home games.
The most surprising item on the Council's agenda, though, that sharply divided both the audience and the Council, was the proposal to turn the Mitchell mansion on Mill Creek Road into a Bed & Breakfast Inn. While seemingly innocuous on the agenda, several members of the council were concerned about a brochure circulating around town. Access Auburn acquired a copy of that brochure (1.7MB pdf) to see what all the fuss was about. Apparently this "Bed and Breakfast" was planning to have 200-300 parking spaces!
After much debate the Council split, four-four (the Mayor recused himself because of his business interests with the Cleveland's company). The B&B was voted down because it failed to obtain a majority vote...a small fact that the O-A News forgot to mention.
So O-A News, with apologies to Steven Colbert, you are on notice.
