ATHENS (WUGA) — At their meeting April 3, the Athens-Clarke County Planning Commission unanimously voted to deny Athens First United Methodist Church’s application for a special use permit.
The Church is trying to obtain a special use permit so they can replace the historic Saye building at the corner of Lumpkin and Hancock with a parking lot. They have been pursuing this request since 2018.
In the staff report presented at last week’s meeting, the analysis of the request stated the project proposed is incompatible with the comprehensive plan, is incompatible with Future Land Use map expectations for Downtown designation and is incompatible with the Dougherty Street Downtown Design Area expectations.
Denise Sunta, speaking on behalf of Historic Athens, raised concerns, “[Their proposal] offers no long-term public benefit that we know of, no site plan for the future use that they have repeatedly said is something other than parking and no timeline for what comes next. Despite the last several years of public discussion on this site, no details on that future intended use other than parking has been shared.”
Planning Commissioner Sara Beresford said she remembers when this request first came up 7 years ago, “[I was] in this room on November 1st 2018 when this came up and my notes are the same…they’re the same then as they are today. This this is not an appropriate use… it’s just a totally inappropriate use of downtown land.”
The Church has repeatedly stated that the proposed parking lot is a temporary solution. Jeremy Lawson, Senior Minister of Athens United Methodist Church, says that in order to invest the time and money that would be required to develop such future plans, they needed to first be guaranteed the ability to demolish the building. However, no one from the Church came forward to speak in support of the application at last week’s meeting.
Athens First United Methodist Church applied for a demolition review in 2018. In an attempt to save the 100-year-old Saye building from destruction, the city paused all demolitions shortly after and established the West Downtown Historic District in 2020. They were then able to deny the Church’s application for a demolition permit on the grounds that the Saye was part of a local historic district. The Saye building, built in 1920, has actually been a part of the National Register of Historic Places as part of the National Downtown Athens Historic District since 1984. However, national designation does not protect against demolition.
The Church filed two lawsuits against the Athens Clarke-County Government which has led to a mediation settlement signed by the city this past November. The agreement allows the Church to remove Saye from the West Downtown Historic District, demolish it, and replace it with the parking lot.
This proposal came before the Planning commission at their February 6 meeting where the commission decided to table the issue for 60 days, waiting to see how the Mayor and Commission would vote on the Historic District decision.
While both the Historic Preservation Commission and the Planning Commission have voted in favor of preserving the Saye Building, their decisions are only recommendations. The Mayor and Commission will ultimately vote to decide the building’s fate.
At their last regular session on April 1, they voted 7-3 to remove the Saye from the West Downtown Historic District. The vote on whether or not to override the Planning Commission’s recommendation and allow the parking lot will possibly come up at their next agenda setting session, April 15.
This article appears on Now Habersham in partnership with WUGA News
