Centerville Mayor and Council met Tuesday for a special council meeting. The sole purpose of the assembly was to vote on whether to award a Georgia Initiative for Community Housing (GICH) point toward the possible future development of a living community in the city of Centerville. The planning of this special session had been announced during last week’s regular meeting after council was split on whether the point should be awarded.
During the meeting of mayor and council on June 2, Director of Economic Development Kate Hogan presented a video that gave a detailed overview of the two developers being considered and the respective communities that they hoped to bring to Centerville: IMC (Parkside Senior Village) and ReaVentures (Abbington at Galleria Mall). Hogan’s presentation also included a letter from the Centerville Housing Team and another from one of the owners of Houston Galleria mall. Both letters expressed favorably of awarding the point to ReaVentures.
Following Hogan’s presentation, Councilman Justin Andrews motioned that the point be awarded to ReaVentures, and Councilman Cameron Andrews seconded the motion. However, in the discussion that followed, Councilman Edward Armijo shared with his constituents and the viewing public that citizens of the community had been voicing to him their disagreement to the idea of having Abbington at Galleria Mall—a multi-family housing development—built in the city.
“I’ve spoken to quite a few citizens within the last two weeks; within the last month, actually,” Armijo stated during the June 2 meeting. “The response I got back was that they’re not interested in the project at the mall, and they’re more interested in the senior citizens [housing].” Armijo then voiced that the decision regarding the housing was one that needed to be made only after having a public hearing where concerned citizens could have their say.
After further discussion, mayor and council, agreed to table the motion to give those members of the community who had been voicing their disapproval the opportunity to contact their council member of choice or to be present at the next meeting to personally express their concerns to the board.
At Tuesday’s meeting, it was motioned, once again, by Wright that the point be awarded as previously noted. Councilman J. Micheal Evans seconded the motion. At that time, Mayor John Harley officially closed the council meeting and opened the meeting to public comments.
“Looking around, I don’t see anybody who wants to make any public comments tonight,” Harley said after an extended pause with no one coming forward. “We’ve been advertising this [meeting] for over a week,” the mayor went on to say. “If you want to make comments, now is the time to do it.” When no one stepped forward, Harley then called for Hogan to share any virtual comments that had been received by way of the internet.
In response, Hogan said, “Previous to last council meeting, we had two weeks of public comments period virtually. We had only one additional question after this matter was tabled from last week’s council meeting,” she reported. “That question had to do with storm water, and I contacted Director [Mike] Brumfield to discuss that issue. We addressed it online, and it was posted last week. Since then, over the weekend,” Hogan went on to say, “and through one more Facebook share, and with an audience of 600 people, we had no new questions submitted.”
Mayor Harley reported that he’d had one telephone call. “I answered that, and the person was very satisfied with the answer,” he conveyed.
“I had one citizen contact me regarding the project,” Wright shared. “They sent me a message via Facebook, and they were in support of it.”
With no one from the public making a statement, the major officially closed the public comments portion of the meeting and reopened the council meeting, giving council members the opportunity to make comments of their own, if they chose.
Armijo took the time to express gratitude to the major and council for allowing the community the opportunity to express their thoughts. “I know this is something we did not have to do, but it’s something that we did, and it at least gave them an opportunity to participate in it. I just want to thank the mayor and council for doing it.”
A brief discussion followed that included some reverberation of clarity from Evans, explaining what the awarding of the GICH point meant. “I have learned more and more about the GICH process and the opportunity for the city council to award a point to a development that wants to come into the city,” Evans said. “We don’t know if it (the request to develop a housing community) has been approved yet, but if we want to have influence in what goes on, that point is there for that. I think that’s a good idea, and we should exercise that.”
In agreement, Wright said, “I think Representative Clark put it best last week when he said that we choose to award no one the point, we’re just allowing the state the opportunity to choose for us without us voicing what we believe is best. I think that awarding this point to this project shows that we believe that of the two projects, this one, at this time, is the best fit for the city.”
The vote to award the point to ReaVentures for the development of Abbington at Galleria Mall was unanimous, and the meeting was adjourned.
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