Group blames city for its shortcomings

To everything … there is a season … and a time to every purpose under Heaven.

— The Byrds

I admire people who are willing to stand up in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, often putting their own well-being at risk, for something they believe in

I also don’t drink alcoholic beverages, so I can sympathize with people who say they don’t want a liquor store in their neighborhood.

But the group that is grumbling about Shreyeshkumar (call me Sam) Patel’s plan to build a liquor store at 401 Johnny W. Williams Road has no one but itself to blame as Patel moves forward with the process of building the establishment. In essence, this group is attempting to unring a bell.

A group, led by individual(s) who reportedly have political aspirations, is asking city of Albany officials to issue a cease and desist order so that they can voice their opposition to the planned alcohol-selling establishment in the mostly impoverished south Albany neighborhood. That’s their right. But the problem with their request is that it comes way too late.

Patel has been attempting to build his liquor store for more than a year, finding road blocks at every turn. First, the Albany-Dougherty Planning Commission, according to city officials, voted not to approve the rezoning request Patel sought that would allow for construction of a liquor store on the Johnny Williams Road property.

But Patel pressed on, taking his request to the Albany City Commission, the next step in the process. City commissioners, led by Ward I’s Jon Howard — who, it must be pointed out, votes to oppose any alcohol-related request based on general principle — spoke out adamantly against the proposal and was set to vote to deny the request that would have, essentially, killed Patel’s plans.

But in what seemed like a last-second reprieve, Ward III Commissioner B.J. Fletcher, who had spoken with Patel about his proposal, asked the board to consider tabling the request so that commissioners would have the opportunity to, as she’d done, look deeper into Patel’s proposal.

The issue languished for another couple of months, again almost dying before being tabled yet again. Finally, though, after commissioners completed their own “due diligence,” the board surprisingly voted to approve the development. Chief among their arguments in favor of granting a businessman an opportunity to bring a new tax-generating business and jobs to the community was the fact that no one in the surrounding neighborhood had responded negatively to the proposed development.

Planning Manager Mary Teter pointed out Friday that signs announcing the meetings at which the issue would be discussed were displayed properly at the site and that the proposed development was properly advertised in this newspaper, on the city’s website and on the public access TV channel that the city uses. She also said Planning contacted the owners of property that abuts the proposed site. No one registered a complaint about the proposal. No one came to the Planning and City Commission meetings to voice objection.

So the commission approved Patel’s request.

A few weeks later, Patel came to the commission with another request, asking for the rezoning of adjacent 405 Johnny W. Williams Road so that he could build a drive-thru and extend his parking lot. Amazingly — given that there had been no previous objection to the project — opposition developed at the public hearing for the second rezoning request. Demetrius Young told the commission, “We don’t want a liquor store in our neighborhood.”

Unfortunately, the time to make that complaint had long passed. But Young and others are asking the city to revoke the previous action they’d taken and to tell Patel he can’t build his liquor store. Which, most people would have no trouble figuring, would violate Patel’s rights and no doubt lead to a lawsuit against the city.

We often decry the “way government operates,” frustrated that complicated processes often negate what appear to be simple solutions. In this case, the government acted as it should have. It’s the people who came too late to the game who are wrong. And their threats of a boycott notwithstanding, their fingerpointing should be at themselves.

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ABH_Fletcher.