In the Loop
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Commission Approves Ban on New Downtown Bars and Apartments
Photo Credit: Blake Aued/file
As expected, the Athens-Clarke County Commission approved a temporary ban on most new downtown bars and apartment buildings Tuesday night over concerns about overcrowding and the downtown drinking culture.
The ban covers bars with a capacity greater than 49 people, unless they open in a space that housed a bar within the past year, and apartments with more than three units. It will last for up to one year while a consultant conducts a study on downtown health and safety, and commissioners consider potential new regulations.
Mayor Nancy Denson said she placed the moratorium on the commission's agenda Monday afternoon to give officials a chance to get a handle on "crowding" and related challenges delivering services like garbage pickup, as well as "excessive drinking."
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ACC Officials Propose Ban on New Bars and Apartments Downtown
Photo Credit: Randy Schafer/file
The Standard is one of several luxury student apartment complexes to open downtown in the past few years.
Athens-Clarke County commissioners will vote on a one-year moratorium on most new bars and apartment buildings downtown at its meeting Tuesday night.
The moratorium was added to the commission agenda late this afternoon. It would cover new bars—except those that open in spaces where another bar has closed in the past 12 months—with capacities larger than 49 people. New apartments of more than three units would be temporarily banned as well.
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Athens Mosque Hosts Open House Saturday
Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones/file
Imam Adel Amer (center) at Al-Huda Islamic Center's open house in 2016.
The Al-Huda Islamic Center will host an open house this Saturday from 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
“The timing is so crucial to give people a window to know about Islam,” said imam Adel Amer. “Actually the problem is with ignorance, we have to fight ignorance, and you won’t be able to form or crystalize an opinion about someone without reading about him, so instead of hearingabout us you’re going to hear from us. Because when you hear about us... the whole portrait will be the same color, or throw all the Muslims in the same basket, and that is not necessarily true. We have bad people, we have crazy people, like everybody else. But this is not the norm.”
An open house last January drew about 600 people, and Amer is expecting a drastic upswing in attendance this year.
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Oconee County Moves to Slow Growth, Revokes Sewer Permits for Unbuilt Subdivisions
Photo Credit: Lee Becker
Wayne Hanie speaks to, from left, commissioners John Daniell, Mark Thomas, Chuck Horton, Bubber Wilkes and Mark Saxon.
Oconee County Commissioners voted Tuesday night to refund sewer capacity for four undeveloped subdivisions in the county, significantly reducing the need for increased sewage treatment capacity in the county.
The decision will make those four housing projects—including the massive Parkside and Westland subdivisions—unbuildable as zoned, since they require sewage capacity for the intensive development proposed.
The decision provides some relief to the county school system, which has raised concerns about the increased residential growth on the county schools.
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UGA African Studies Institute Vandalized
Photo Credit: Tifara Brown/Facebook
University of Georgia police were contacted Sunday afternoon after visitors on UGA’s North Campus noticed that an exterior glass door had been shattered at the African Studies Institute in the Holmes-Hunter Academic Building, named for the two black students who integrated the university in 1961.
According to a statement released by UGA police, “the door was found to have damage to the lower half, consistent with being kicked.” The reporting officer contacted UGA Facilities Management Department to secure the door and clean up the glass. There was no other damage to the building.
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Morehead Releases Stronger Statement on Travel Ban
University of Georgia President Jere Morehead emailed a "personal follow-up" to the UGA community this afternoon on President Donald Trump's ban on refugees and travel from seven Muslim nations.
An initial statement released this morning—taken almost verbatim from an email University System Chancellor Steve Wrigley sent to college presidents—was met with derision among some faculty and students for its stilted language. For example, one professor referred to it on social media as "weak sauce," while another called it "tepid, at best."
The latest statement reads:
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Lawyers Fight for Travelers Trapped by Trump
Lawyers huddled up, poring over papers on the floor of Dulles International Airport, outside of Washington D.C. a couple hundred feet away from the throngs of protesters cheering, chanting and welcoming home people coming out of customs from international flights.
Since President Donald Trump signed a poorly considered and chaotically implemented executive order banning immigrants, refugees and even green card holders from seven majority-Muslim countries on Friday evening—stranding people already in transit to the U.S.—these lawyers have been busting their asses.
“I could quit my job and just file Habeas writs,” one said. Her colleague laughed wearily.
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UGA: No One Affected by Trump Travel Ban
Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore
No UGA faculty or students were affected by the executive order President Donald Trump signed Friday restricting travel from seven predominately Muslim nations, according to the university.
UGA President Jere Morehead, Pamela Whitten, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Pamela Whitten and Associate Provost for International Education Noel Fallows released a statement this morning:
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