Augusta Commissioner John Clarke’s attempt to get the Regency Mall property on Gordon Highway inspected to see if it violates the city’s blight ordinance failed for the second week in a row Tuesday.
This week, Clarke’s motion to move the abandoned property to the top of the list of Augusta’s blighted properties failed for lack of a second after City Administrator Odie Donald cautioned against targeting specific properties for inspection.
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“Again, no pushback of reviewing properties that are on the list and prioritizing them,” Donald said. “I think we cause ourselves some issues, though, when we identify specific properties over others. And I would just caution us in doing that.”
Before making his motion, Clarke said it was not a recommendation for condemning property or taking it by eminent domain or anything like that.
“It is simply taking the ordinance we passed as a commission and performing that duty and moving it to the front of the list, so that we can get it done and then address other properties afterward,” he said.
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The failure of his motion was the second defeat for Clarke on Tuesday. His and Catherine Smith-McKnight’s motion calling for a forensic audit of the entire government also failed.
Afterward, Clarke said, “Today I felt like the salmon swimming upstream to the spawning grounds, knowing that there’s a 500-pound grizzly bear sitting at the edge of the river ready to take a swipe.”
The 50-acre Regency Mall tract has been vacant for 20 years and has been the subject of two costly past Augusta Commission studies that recommended developments such as a senior living complex. Private developers were successful in getting a $60 million sports complex put on a SPLOST referendum, but voters rejected the sales-tax package.
In the past, one Augusta Commission candidate proposed developing the site into a giant outdoor entertainment center with water features, a Ferris wheel and other rides. Most recently, Mayor Hardie Davis and some Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority members pushed for it to become the site of the new James Brown Arena.
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Meanwhile, the owner, Cardinal Regency Mall LLC, had the buildings demolished and the parking lot removed to avoid paying the city’s rain tax.
Donald assured commissioners he would highlight implementing the blight ordinance and said that many longstanding blighted properties were on a list and will be reviewed because Clarke and others have made it a priority.
Opinion: Regency Mall is Not the Real Problem
Commissioner Brandon Garrett asked how commissioners could know what’s on the list and where it was.
“We maintain a list of properties that are set for demolition as well as properties that have been brought forward and reviewed for inspection,” Donald said. “Planning and Development carries that list. There are several properties that I detailed last week that are to be inspected by the Planning and Development Department. It just doesn’t just include those 300 properties that have been inspected, fined, etcetera, but there are other properties that need to be inspected, including the Regency Mall property.”
Sylvia Cooper is a Correspondent with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com.
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