Plans to build a shopping center on 50 acres of floodplain and wetlands in Rome have been temporarily halted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after a successful four-year campaign to stop the project by a local citizen advocacy group.
According to a press release from the Coosa River Basin Initiative:
Since 2008 when the Corps originally issued the permit for the Citi Center project, the Coosa River Basin Initiative has objected to the permit, saying it was issued without public review and because the project itself would harm publicly-owned wetlands and floodplain property that was being considered for development as a Rome city park.
In a May 2 letter to shopping center developer, Ledbetter Properties, the Corps suspended the permit, saying the suspension was warranted “to protect the public interest.” The Corps will now further review the project and determine whether the permit should be reinstated, modified or revoked.
The project, to be located at the corner of Riverside Parkway and Turner McCall Boulevard opposite Ridge Ferry Park, would encompass 60 acres of land and include large anchor stores and numerous out parcels. Development would require extensive fill in some fifty acres of floodplain, destroy four acres of wetlands and harm Burwell Creek which runs through the middle of the property.
Ledbetter Properties had proposed capping an abandoned city landfill on a portion of the property and filling in the remaining land to make way for the shopping center. The existence of the landfill enabled the development firm to convince the Corps that the project qualified as a Brownfield development, a program administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency aimed at cleaning up contaminated industrial sites.
As a result, the Corps issued a Nationwide Permit No. 38 for the project, a special permit used for hazardous waste clean ups—not construction of a shopping centers. Such permits do not require a public review.
Earlier this year, CRBI petitioned the Corps to revoke the permit, saying the EPA never sponsored the development as a Brownfield project and because recent changes to the original development plan would result in further harm to Burwell Creek and nearby wetlands.
In the letter the Corps stated: “As a result of recent communication with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, we have now determined that the project was not a participant in the Brownfield Clean Up program … Since we now consider the primary project purpose to be commercial development, the use of NWP No. 38 to authorize the overall project is not appropriate.”
“The Corps made a mistake and they are correcting it,” said Joe Cook, CRBI Executive Director & Riverkeeper. “The way in which this project was originally approved was completely unfair to the City of Rome and its citizens. Citizens should now have a chance to be heard and the Burwell Creek property should be put to its best possible use for this community.”
More than 1300 people have signed a CRBI-sponsored petition opposing the project and urging the Rome City Commission to consider use of the property as a city park. A tour of the property organized by CRBI on April 2 attracted more than 90 concerned citizens.
CRBI is a 501c3 non profit organization and member of the international Waterkeeper Alliance. Its mission is to inform and empower citizens to protect, preserve and restore North America’s most biologically diverse river basin.
