John Woodham
A court challenge has been filed against Atlanta’s plan to sell $278.3 million in bonds to help fund construction of the Falcons’ $1.2 billion stadium.
The motion portrays a breakdown in legislative and administrative processes all the way from the state Capitol to the Georgia World Congress Center Authority and to Atlanta City Hall.
The motion raises legal issues involving the constitutionality of the hotel motel tax; the demolition of two churches; failure to address state-mandated environmental concerns; and failure to ask the Atlanta Regional Commission to review the project as a development of regional impact.
Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore
The motion to intervene contends that the bonds should not be validated for more than a dozen reasons. The lawyers are John Woodham, who opposed the BeltLine tax allocation district, and Thelma Wyatt Moore, a former chief judge of Fulton County Superior Court first appointed to the bench by then-Mayor Maynard Jackson.
The errors start with a state law that “purportedly” (a word used frequently in the motion) enables Atlanta to change the hotel motel tax in order to fund the new stadium. The bill was filed by Rep. Mark Burkhalter, a Republican who at the time was in the ranks of the House leadership team.
Atlanta committed legislative errors, as well, the motion contends. The city made a fatal error by voting to extend the tax before the Georgia World Congress Center Authority had submitted a tax certification. In addition, the city erred in December by agreeing to abandon 2.4 acres to the state for the stadium – the abandonment is improper because the land will not benefit Atlanta citizens.
The motion contends the state’s environmental policy has been violated by the planned demolition of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church and Friendship Baptist Church, and by the authority’s failure to make a determination as to whether the new stadium will affect the quality of the environment.
Woodham may be best known in Atlanta for his legal battle to prevent the use of Atlanta school taxes to help fund the BeltLine. That case landed in the Georgia Supreme Court in 2007 and was finally adjudicated in 2013. The court ruled that the use of school taxes for purposes other than education is constitutional.
A motion to intervene could delay, or eliminate, Atlanta’s ability to help fund construction of the Falcons stadium. Credit: newstadium.atlantafalcons.com
Moore retired from the bench in 2008 and opened her own legal practice. Shortly before Moore stepped down, she issued a ruling that was praised by environmentalists because it was the first in the nation to link coal-fired power plants with global warming.
The motion in the stadium case was filed Feb. 10. The bond validation hearing is scheduled for Feb. 17 before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the new stadium is to be scheduled the week of March 31, team owner Arthur Blank said in October.
The motion throws a cloud of uncertainty over that plan for a number of reasons:
Four intervenors are named in the motion:
