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Neighbors deliver 377-signature petition on South Side zoning concerns, tell council they want dialogue
Summary
Residents from Athens’s South Side presented council with a petition containing 377 signatures opposing a proposed zoning change, saying their outreach produced conversations and urged council to engage substantively. Petitioners described foundation problems in several homes and asked for a receptive response from council.
Residents of Athens’s South Side delivered a packet of petitions with 377 signatures to city council during the meeting’s public-comment period and urged council members to engage with neighborhood concerns over zoning and development.
Aaron Leatherwood, who said he lives at 100 Coventry Lane, told council he and a citizens’ group circulated the petitions door-to-door and submitted paper copies that evening. “We had circulated a petition with 377 petitions, and I had sent that to council yesterday,” Leatherwood said, asking council to treat the group’s concerns as part of democratic neighborhood engagement rather than hostility.
Jared Miller, another resident, said the organizing effort helped neighbors meet and surface common problems; he noted multiple houses on Canterbury and Coventry drives had recently required foundation work, which residents attributed to drought and shifting soils. Miller described the petition effort as the start of an ongoing neighborhood conversation and thanked council members who had already reached out to residents.
Council did not immediately take action on the petition during the meeting; council members who had engaged with neighborhood contacts were acknowledged by speakers. The petition will be part of the public record and was handed to council for follow-up by staff and members.
