NEER’s rezoning request initially denied by City Council
Officials at the City of College Park were first made aware of NEER’s Southwest Atlanta Energy Storage project in June 2021, when the developer filed a request with the city’s Planning Commission to rezone a 62-acre property to accommodate the BESS.
After the initial planning commission meeting, NEER’s rezoning request was then denied by the City Council on August 18, 2023, over two years after its first submission, following resident concerns about safety.
Despite the denial, City Officials seemingly changed their minds on the project, revisiting and approving the request at a March 18, 2024 meeting.
Rezoning request approved without discussion
Although the rezoning request didn’t form part of the agenda for the March 18 meeting, it was added at the very outset on the request of City Manager Emmanuel Adediran, with the backing of council members Roderick Gay and Jamelle McKenzie.
Later on in the meeting, the rezoning request passed in a 3-1 vote, after Chair and City Mayor Bianca Motley Broom asked the board for a motion. Unlike other council decisions, the request passed without any discussion or deliberation between officials.
During the meeting, Council member Gay explained that as this was a renewed motion, a public notice and hearing, along with accompanying discussion, wasn’t required.
However, the next item, also added to the agenda at the last minute, generated much more of a discussion between council members. This item asked council members to consider the acceptance of a US$1.6 million “economic development grant” from NEER, to be shared among the four wards of the City.
A discussion between Motley Broom and Adediran ensued, with the City Manager unable to answer any of the questions raised by the Mayor.
City Manager Adediran explained that they had brought the grant consideration to the meeting at the request of council member Gay, but didn’t have any accompanying information to explain what the grant was for, or what it included.
Despite not knowing the specifics of the grant, it was unanimously approved by the council members without any further discussion. At the request of Mayor Motley Broom, City Manager Adediran was to provide the council with the supporting information the following day.
The discussion between Mayor Motley Broom and Adediran can be found on YouTube coupled with the written meeting minutes.
Mayor left “deeply uncomfortable with the optics of this decision”
A few days after the meeting, in a post on their website, Mayor Motley Broom said they were left feeling “deeply uncomfortable with the optics of this decision”, in reference to the NEER grant.
In the online post, Mayor Motley Broom attached a document they had received from NEER, which detailed a breakdown of the grant. As detailed within NEER’s breakdown, the City would receive US$200,000 upon a successful rezoning decision, US$600,000 upon the award of a commercial contract to NEER and a final US$800,000 prior to the award of building permits.
In the words of the Mayor, an “argument could be made that in exchange for a rezoning approval, the city will receive US$1.6 million”.
The Mayor also expressed concerns over the rezoning decision, stating they didn’t believe the process had complied with state law or city-wide ordinances. The concerns of the Mayor grew so large that they reached out to the State Attorney General’s Office for their views on the matter.
Residents file lawsuit against the decision
Following the decision, attorney Linda Dunlavy, of Dunlavy Law Group, filed a lawsuit on behalf of local residents against NEER and the City of College Park, accusing officials at the City of issuing a rezoning request in breach of state law and local procedures.
The 534-page lawsuit argued that by adding the rezoning request to the agenda at the last minute, officials denied residents their legal right to be heard.
In order to prevent progression of the Southwest Atlanta project, the lawsuit sought a court order prohibiting the City of College Park issuing NEER any permit relating to further project development.
According to the lawsuit, Dunlavy sent a letter to City Officials requesting a public hearing take place on the project, which was left unanswered.
Court issues motion to dismiss after claims were time-barred
On February 27, 2025, the legal process seemingly came to an end after Judge Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court issued an order for dismissal.
Judge McAfee dismissed the case on procedural grounds, ruling that the plaintiffs had missed the 30-day deadline for zoning challenges in Georgia, as outlined in the State’s zoning procedure laws. In its March 6 press release, Officials at the City of College Park hailed the decision as a “significant legal victory”.
Energy-Storage.news has reached out for comment from all of the organisations and individuals mentioned in this article and will update the article when it receives a response.
