Monday night’s hour-and-a-half-long council meeting featured a Student Senate presentation about the controversial Bobcat Lane and closed with an executive session about the city’s possible takeover of a former gas station on Columbus Road.
Citing two sections of Athens city code, which suggest permanent dead-end streets are not legal, Chris Wimsatt and Joel Newby, members of Student Senate’s “Why No Oxbow” task force, made their case for the opening of Bobcat Lane.
Section 21.05.10 of Athens city code states, “Permanent dead-end streets shall not be permitted.”
City officials have previously said the ordinance in question is a part of the subdivision regulations and does not affect Bobcat Lane, which has been blocked from connecting Oxbow Trail to Richland Avenue since its construction in 2008.
“Students would be a benefactor if (Bobcat Lane) opens, and they would suffer if it doesn’t,” Wimsatt said.
After the meeting, Mayor Paul Wiehl said Wimsatt’s claim was more of an assumption than fact and that there is no way of knowing whether students would benefit from opening the road.
“The arguments they have are subdivision-based, and (Bobcat Lane) is not a subdivision,” Wiehl said. “If we used the subdivision regulations, those streets would have to be public, and they’re not. The claim that they made tonight is false.”
Wiehl, who has previously opposed opening the road, said Student Senate’s perspective on Bobcat Lane did not alter his views.
After the public portion of the meeting, council members, Wiehl and Safety Service Director Paula Horan-Moseley entered an executive session to discuss acquiring the gas station on Columbus Road.
After the session, which lasted about 30 minutes, Council immediately adjourned and did not take up any other business.
When the city is discussing acquiring property, the state allows Council to deliberate the matter in an executive session, said councilman Elahu Gosney, D-at large.
Gosney added that he does not know whether a vote is forthcoming to accept the land — which the state offered the city — where the abandoned Bi-Lo gas station is located.
“It’s best that we discuss these matters in private,” he said.
But accepting the property could be a double-edged sword for Council because though the land could be developed or sold at the city’s discretion, the underground tanks could be contaminated and expensive for the city to treat.
If the city does not accept the abandoned station, the state will acquire the land, said Councilwoman Michelle Papai, D-3rd Ward.
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