NEWS

Company sues city over rezoning denial

Sandy Hodson
shodson@augustachronicle.com

Builders who want to put an apartment complex on a four-acre property on Dennis Road, which the Augusta Commission nixed by denying a rezoning request, have filed suit against the city, commissioners and mayor.

Purko Builders Inc. filed the Richmond County Superior Court lawsuit Thursday to try to force the city into granting a rezoning request. Purko contends that commissioners acted arbitrarily and abused their discretion when they voted 8-2 to deny its request Sept. 17.

According to the lawsuit, Purko sought the rezoning of the property at Dennis Road and Alice Lane to build a 40-unit apartment complex next to a townhome development. The builders contend they granted the city an easement to discharge stormwater across the property to help alleviate flooding, altered the plans in order to have two driveways, and paid for a traffic study prepared by Infrastructure Systems Management that showed the current conditions of Dennis Road could support the proposed complex.

Neighbors voiced their objections to the rezoning request at a Sept. 4 hearing by the city's planning commission, which still approved the application. Neighbors voiced the same objections at the Sept. 17 Augusta Commission meeting although they did not present any traffic study that countered Purko's study, according to the lawsuit.

The commission's denial of the rezoning request reduced the value of the property from $280,000 to $100,000, according to Hollingsworth Appraisal Co., the lawsuit states. The lawsuit contends the builders have a legal right to have the property rezoned.