Athens, Alabama Citizens Face Lose of Property Rights

Athens Alabama Citizens
Face Loss of Property Rights

Some time before October 2002 the Athens City Council hired a Nashville consulting firm, Barge, Wagner, Summer and Cannon, to develop a ‘Master Plan’ for the future growth of the city of Athens, Alabama. The city, in conjunction with BWS&C, held several public meetings purportedly for the purpose of allowing ‘input’ from the public.

I was aware of master plans being developed for other Alabama cities, so I decided to attend a meeting that was held in mid-January of 2004. It was immediately apparent that the ‘input’ from attendees was not the main thrust of the meeting. When the moderator of the program introduced himself as the ‘facilitator’ I knew I was witnessing the Delphi Technique firsthand.

After several BWS&C meetings a small group of citizens began holding private meetings to discuss ways to alert unsuspecting citizens to the dangers of master planning, i.e. sustainable development. We had limited financial backing so we looked for the least expensive methods to get our message out. We took advantage of the letters-to-the-editor section of our local paper. We had at least one letter about the master plan in the paper every week for about 10 weeks. We also have an anonymous write-in column in our paper called Sound Off.

The writer is not required to sign his submission. We found a meeting hall large enough to accommodate a good sized audience and we began holding public meetings. We took advantage of the free announcements service in our newspaper to advertise the purpose, time and location of our meetings. Some people came to our rescue and delivered the program for our first public meeting which successfully captured the attention of many citizens who had previously been unaware of the master planning that was going on. We also captured the attention of the city officials and some county officials.

We found a small, local radio station that was willing to let the chairman of our group appear on a talk program they host. And our chairman was also able to get a guest editorial published in our paper. We created and printed an informational sheet for a ‘roll and toss.’ We printed 800 copies, rolled them and put them in plastic sleeves then placed them in newspaper boxes throughout selected sections of Athens.

To our advantage, 2004 was the election year for our mayor and all city council seats. We tried to put as much heat on city officials as possible. Again, to our advantage, two Athens residents who opposed the master plan qualified as candidates for the council. Three of our five incumbent councilmen were defeated in the election.

Unfortunately, we did not get organized as soon as we should have. The council adopted the master plan in Dec 2003 while we were still struggling to get our organization together. We became active in mid-January 2004 with the hopes that enough citizens would become concerned about the master plan and demand that it be revoked. That has not happened yet, but the elected officials know they are being watched and I believe they will not act as quickly to implement most of the elements of the master plan.

We are currently faced with a new problem in Limestone County. The surrounding cities of Huntsville, Madison and Decatur are annexing a lot of Limestone County property into their cities, so our county is being consumed by other cities little by little. As a result of the threat of losing more of our county to other cities the Athens City Council is now dicussing the possibility of expanding its corporate city limits to protect the city and some of the county from other cities. There are a great many of us who live outside the city limits and enjoy the freedom of having no zoning authority telling us what to do with our property. We will lose this freedom if Athens successfully annexes our property into its corporate city limits. So we will once again have to fight to protect our liberties here in Limestone County.

I wish the best of luck to you in your endeavors.

Sincerely,

A Citizen of Athens, Alabama

	Athens Alabama Citizens Face Loss of Property Rights
	Some time before October 2002 the Athens City Council hired a Nashville consulting firm, Barge, Wagner, Summer and Cannon, to develop a ‘Master Plan’ for the future growth of the city of Athens, Alabama. The city, in conjunction with BWS&C, held several public meetings purportedly for the purpose of allowing ‘input’ from the public. I was aware of master plans being developed for other Alabama cities, so I decided to attend a meeting that was held in mid-January of 2004. It was immediately apparent that the ‘input’ from attendees was not the main thrust of the meeting. When the moderator of the program introduced himself as the ‘facilitator’ I knew I was witnessing the Delphi Technique firsthand. After several BWS&C meetings a small group of citizens began holding private meetings to discuss ways to alert unsuspecting citizens to the dangers of master planning, i.e. sustainable development. We had limited financial backing so we looked for the least expensive methods to get our message out. We took advantage of the letters-to-the-editor section of our local paper. We had at least one letter about the master plan in the paper every week for about 10 weeks. We also have an anonymous write-in column in our paper called Sound Off. The writer is not required to sign his submission. We found a meeting hall large enough to accommodate a good sized audience and we began holding public meetings. We took advantage of the free announcements service in our newspaper to advertise the purpose, time and location of our meetings. Some people came to our rescue and delivered the program for our first public meeting which successfully captured the attention of many citizens who had previously been unaware of the master planning that was going on. We also captured the attention of the city officials and some county officials. We found a small, local radio station that was willing to let the chairman of our group appear on a talk program they host. And our chairman was also able to get a guest editorial published in our paper. We created and printed an informational sheet for a ‘roll and toss.’ We printed 800 copies, rolled them and put them in plastic sleeves then placed them in newspaper boxes throughout selected sections of Athens. To our advantage, 2004 was the election year for our mayor and all city council seats. We tried to put as much heat on city officials as possible. Again, to our advantage, two Athens residents who opposed the master plan qualified as candidates for the council. Three of our five incumbent councilmen were defeated in the election. Unfortunately, we did not get organized as soon as we should have. The council adopted the master plan in Dec 2003 while we were still struggling to get our organization together. We became active in mid-January 2004 with the hopes that enough citizens would become concerned about the master plan and demand that it be revoked. That has not happened yet, but the elected officials know they are being watched and I believe they will not act as quickly to implement most of the elements of the master plan. We are currently faced with a new problem in Limestone County. The surrounding cities of Huntsville, Madison and Decatur are annexing a lot of Limestone County property into their cities, so our county is being consumed by other cities little by little. As a result of the threat of losing more of our county to other cities the Athens City Council is now dicussing the possibility of expanding its corporate city limits to protect the city and some of the county from other cities. There are a great many of us who live outside the city limits and enjoy the freedom of having no zoning authority telling us what to do with our property. We will lose this freedom if Athens successfully annexes our property into its corporate city limits. So we will once again have to fight to protect our liberties here in Limestone County. I wish the best of luck to you in your endeavors. Sincerely, A Citizen of Athens, Alabama