by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Legislation filed three months ago that would permanently close a portion of Landon Avenue has been withdrawn.
Offered at the request of Mayor John Peyton’s office and supported by City Council member Art Shad, the bill coasted through two Council committees while under review and was expected to get a third and final OK last month.
Those plans hit a bump when Council member Suzanne Jenkins found out about the pending legislation.
She said she “could never support it.”
“I hadn’t heard anything about the closing, but once I did I knew it was a bad idea,” said Jenkins. “I just didn’t see any sense in splitting the neighborhood up like that.
“You would be cutting an entire section off from the school, parks and the river and that sends the wrong message, not to mention all of the negative traffic affects.”
Jenkins requested the bill be deferred for two weeks and, during that time, found plenty of people who could and would speak out against it, including area business owners, Landon Middle School principal Jackie Christopher and School Board director of transportation Karen Kuhlman.
Due to the overwhelming opposition — Shad’s office received nearly four times as many negative calls as positive calls regarding the bill — Peyton and Shad made a joint decision Tuesday to withdraw it.
“After learning of previously unaired concerns and working closely with Councilman Shad on the issue, this seemed like the wisest course of action at this time,” said Peyton.
Shad agreed, saying, “it was clear we needed to take a step back for now.”
“Currently I’m working with the General Counsel’s Office to see what kind of legislation we can offer so that public hearings are more properly noticed,” he said.
Shad and Council member Reggie Fullwood organized a meeting last month where little more than a supportive base gathered.
“Maybe it wasn’t properly advertised. Maybe in the future we need to post signs in a more proper and organized procedure,” he said. “Throughout this process, people have been saying, ‘Oh, I didn’t know anything about this’ and things like that. That’s obviously not a good thing because the people’s voice should be heard from the beginning.”
Jenkins commended Shad for “being willing to admit that not enough research had been done.”
“I can appreciate that Councilman Shad was trying to be on the side of his constituents,” she said, “but this wasn’t right.”