Downtown Property Owners to ADDA Board: We Are Being Ignored

The Tuesday meeting of the Athens Downtown Development Authority board was crowded with people who don’t usually attend such meetings. Many of them were downtown property owners, and they came to hear UGA professor Jack Crowley talk about the Downtown Athens Master Plan.

Before he could do so, Janey Cooley, senior vice president at First American Bank and Trust, voiced her concerns.

She told the board that many downtown property owners haven’t heard from Crowley since July 12th of last year. That’s when they requested a market analysis be part of the master plan. 

Property owners weren't informed about the two public meetings at the Classic Center to discuss the plan. Some have never spoken to Crowley. And, Ms. Cooley said, downtown property owners feel they are being ignored.

“I don’t like being ignored,” Ms. Cooley said after the meeting.

She learned from Crowley that former ADDA director Kathryn Lookofsky had been working on a marketing analysis with officials from the UGA Terry College of Business. And that there had been an attempt last year to build a data base of downtown property owners.

Board member Regina Quick said she had compiled a list of downtown property owners that she would share with new ADDA director Pam Thompson.

Crowley said that over the past several months, he has talked to more than 3,000, to individuals as well as to groups. He asked for a list of property owners he hasn’t spoken to and assured the board that he would do so.

For the next three weeks, however, Crowley is putting the plan aside to work on accreditation for his UGA program.