Council settles suit to buy house in flood plain

Atlanta City Council has approved the purchase of one of the homes ensnared in the longstanding legal dispute between the city and residents in the Peoplestown neighborhood.

After more than 30 minutes in closeddoor executive session on Monday, council members unanimously voted to authorize the settlement of the city’s lawsuit against Dwayne Agard for his home on Ormond Street.

City Councilman Jason Winston said the Agards will receive $925,000, which includes $200,000 the city previously deposited into the Fulton County Superior Court Trust Registry for the property.

In 2014, then-mayor Kasim Reed urged the council to pass an ordinance for the use of eminent domain to take dozens of homes in the southeast Atlanta neighborhood for the purpose of building a flood prevention park across a city block. Several residents refused to take a deal, spurring the city to sue them in 2016.

Winston said the funds will come from four different accounts, including the city’s Water & Wastewater Revenue Fund.

The money will be sent to the court registry for dispersal among Dwayne Adgar, Arnold Adgar, and the Evans Law Firm, according to a copy of the resolution.

The settlement now awaits Mayor Andre Dickens’ signature, and it comes after the mayor told WABE last week

that the city now has data showing the homes would not survive a massive flooding event. Dickens said the city wants to buy the homes at a fair market value in order to build an underground stormwater vault covered by a water retention garden and pond.

At the council meeting on Monday, hours prior to the council’s vote, two Peoplestown homeowners spoke for nearly 20 minutes and criticized the city’s efforts to take their houses. They

said the city needs to publicly disclose the evidence that supports the need for their homes to be destroyed for the project.