The potential loss of one of Georgia's finest wild lands at the hands of corrupt politicians.

The Oaky Woods Controversy

Whew! This Web site is supposed to be about enjoying the outdoors and learning about nature. I never wanted it to become political or anything, but since I discovered this situation, I figure I have to do my part to call the appropriate attention to it.

Update 9/30/2008: Decision time is bearing down, and there is surprisingly little outcry over this issue. I have rewritten this entire page to reflect the latest information I have, and to call attention to the urgency of this issue.

Georgia Residents: Register, Educate Yourselves, and Vote!

It appears possible that this "Infrastructure Development Districts" amendment will pass due to lack of interest in opposing it. Those responsible for creating the description of this ballot item as it will appear on the ballot are hard at work making it appear as innocuous as they can make it.

It has been criticized and opposed under the name, "Private Cities," but it will appear on the Georgia ballot as "Amendment #3, Infrastructure Development Districts." It purports to be a way for local governments to enlist the help of private funding to stimulate economic development, and it purports to provide safeguards to protect the environment, and to protect local counties and municipalities from being burdened by the costs of infrastructure - water, sewage, waste management, etc. - created by these "IDDs." Do you believe it? Do you understand it?

If you are eligible to vote in Georgia this year, it is important for the sake of Oaky Woods and other undeveloped areas in Georgia, as well as for the economic and environmental health of existing towns and cities, that you educate yourself on this issue, register to vote, and vote as you see fit.

• Deadline to register to vote in this November's general election is October 6, 2008. If you are not registered, you can find out how to register on the Georgia Secretary of State Web site.
• Find out the truth about the "Infrastructure Development Districts." There are several links to a rich variety of information and informed opinions below.
• Get out and vote on November 4.

Please, don't view this Web site as a source of reliable information on the issue. But if the little bit of second-hand information here arouses your interest, search out the more authoritative sources and educate yourself.

Here is the latest information I have, as of 9/30/2008:

• Efforts to save Oaky Woods from development are now concentrating on a consortium of federal, state, county, and private funds to purchase the land from the developers who currently own it. See the Save Oaky Woods Web site for more information on this effort.
• I received this summary from Alan Toney, elected member of the Fulton County Soil and Water District, via the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club.
• Read the full text of S.R. 309, the proposal to amend the Georgia Constitution to enable the creation of "Infrastructure Development Districts." This is the amendment that is on the ballot this November, and which must be approved by the voters of Georgia in order to go into effect.
• Read an unbiased summary of the ballot item for Georgia Infrastructure Development Districts (2008) on BallotPedia.org.
• As a nod to balanced presentation, I offer you this positive slant on the issue, from "Georgians for Quality Economic Development." However, I would ask you to look closely at the membership list of this organization, and to bear in mind the mantra of the Sierra Club on this issue, stated by Neill Herring: "Except for the people that stand to benefit from it, nobody really wants it." I should qualify Mr. Herring's statement, that by "benefit," he means "make money."

There is more information, including many new links added 9/30/2008, below.

Again, I don't have all the facts, but if the information I have stumbled upon is accurate, the smell of this thing could drive the skunks away.

Disclaimers and disclosures

The main things you need to know about where I'm coming from are these:

• I did not research the issue completely. What I know about it is information I discovered incidentally while looking for more general information about Oaky Woods Wildlife Management Area, such as maps and regulations.
• I don't care about the political parties or ideologies of the parties involved, but I do believe in honesty in government and in reasonable stewardship of our natural heritage.
• This issue was created primarily by Republicans (nominally conservative) and couched in terms of smaller government and less regulation. Although I tend to vote on the conservative side of things, my understanding of this issue suggests that the actual motivation is pure unadulterated greed and corruption, leading to willful destruction of the environment and wanton disregard for individual rights and due process more appropriate to a Democrat-inspired cartoon than to an honest conservative ideology. It sounds like a ludicrous exaggeration of Republican aims, but it appears to be literally true.
• Not being a resident of Georgia, I can't vote on this question, and it could be said that I have no grounds at all to be concerned about a question of land use in Georgia.

Please preface every statement on this Web page with "I don't necessarily have all the facts, but it appears that ..."

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The present situation:

• The main tract of Oaky Woods Wildlife Management Area is owned by a development partnership of Houston County businessmen and leased to the state for use as a wildlife management area.
• Current zoning laws prevent any residential development of the land, and most other profitable uses.
• Update 2/4/2008: The present owners of Oaky Woods have filed a request for variance on the applicable zoning laws. The request is in limbo as I write this, torn between legal wranglings of the state, Houston County, and the city of Warner Robins. Get the latest information from the Save Oaky Woods Web site.
• An amendment to the state constitution was passed by the legislature this year, and must be approved by the voters in the general election in November, 2008. This amendment will allow the creation of "private cities," which will be exempt from zoning laws and regulations of their respective counties, and which will be permitted to levy fees - effectively, taxes - on their residents to pay development and operational costs of the "city."
• The proposed constitutional amendment explicitly forbids the creation of these "private cities" in Houston and Muscogee counties. Houston County is where the Oaky Woods tract lies, and Governor Purdue appears to have other significant real estate interests in Muscogee County. Opponents of the amendment suggest that this exclusion is a sham, designed to create the illusion that the owners of Oaky Woods and adjacent lands are not going to profit from the enactment of this amendment, and that the exclusion will not stand up to a court challenge. That is, as soon as the amendment takes effect, it will be extended to include Houston and Muscogee counties and the bulldozers will move into Oaky Woods.
• Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue owns a large tract of land in Houston County adjacent to Oaky Woods, the assessed value of which has increased two and a half times since the introduction of this proposed constitutional amendment.

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Other background information:

• Oaky Woods has been described as some of the best black bear habitat in the southeast. A study by the University of Georgia's Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources states, "Oaky Woods and Ocmulgee Wildlife Management Areas (WMA's) are likely the 'core' area of suitable habitat for black bears in central Georgia.' See http://www.warnell.uga.edu/h/research/wildlife/wildlife/blackBears/.
• In June, 2007, the lease that the state pays to the owners of Oaky Woods was increased by 24% in apparent retaliation for one of the owners of Oaky Woods being prosecuted for illegal hunting in Peach County. Department of Natural Resources law enforcement officers at the scene of the alleged illegal hunt state that the accused specifically mentioned consequences for the Oaky Woods lease, and the accused even called the DNR commissioner to order the enforcement officers off, which the commissioner declined to do. See http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/970510/oaky_woods_lease_increases_after_owner_cited/index.html.
• The chairman of the Georgia House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Larry O'Neal, is a member of the board of the Columbus Bank and Trust, which provided the loan for the purchase and development of the Oaky Woods property.

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Rough timeline of events:

• For decades, the land known as Oaky Woods Wildlife Management Area has been owned by a succession of paper companies and leased by the State of Georgia. Some harvesting and replanting obviously took place, but no development. I do not know how recently the last cutting on the land occurred, but I would not be surprised if no timber was harvested during the time the land was leased by the state. I believe that it was owned by Georgia Pacific in the early 1970s, when I lived in Georgia. The last paper company to own it was Weyerhaeuser.
• For decades, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources had documented descriptions of Oaky Woods as a "top priority" for acquisition whenever that would become possible.
• In 2003, Governor Sonny Purdue acquired 100 acres of land in Houston County immediately adjacent to Oaky Woods.
• In 2004, Weyerhaeuser announced its intention to sell the land, and expressed a preference to sell the land for use in nature conservation.
• In 2004, The Nature Conservancy proposed to buy the land with the intention of eventually turning it over to the state. They requested a letter from the state expressing an interest in eventually acquiring the land for state use as conservation land. Note that the state was not asked to make a specific commitment, but only to declare intent to buy the land at some unspecified future date. The state declined to issue this letter, despite the previous long-standing "top priority" of the Department of Natural Resources, and The Nature Conservancy withdrew its offer to buy the land.
• In 2004, the land was acquired by a consortium of Houston County businessmen with the express intent of residential development.
• In 2007, a proposed constitutional amendment was introduced in the state legislature to define and permit the creation of "private cities" exempt from many land-use regulations, and authorized to levy "fees" without the requirements of transparency and voter participation that regulate municipal governments.
• In 2007, this constitutional amendment passed the state senate by a very narrow margin in a session that has been described as "midnight legislation" and appears to have been scheduled intentionally to avoid the participation of most members who opposed the legislation. (Indeed, the amendment failed in its first vote, and passed upon the second vote a few hours later.)
• This constitutional amendment must be approved by the state's voters in the general election of 2008 in order to take effect.
• If the state's voters reject the currently proposed constitutional amendment, this will only be a stopgap for Oaky Woods. As quickly as possible thereafter, the state or a private organization must take action to acquire the land and place it in a permanent status as a conservation area. The crash in value immediately after a voter rejection of the amendment might be the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a private conservation organization to purchase it.

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• Save Oaky Woods, home page of an organization seeking to raise county and private funds to purchase Oaky Woods from the developers who currently own it.
• Sierra Club, Georgia Chapter, Metro Atlanta Group
• Sierra Club, Georgia Chapter
• Georgia Infrastructure Development Districts (2008), BallotPedia's cut and dried summary of the ballot item to amend Georgia's constitution.
• Full Text of S.R. 309, the proposal to amend Georgia's constitution.
• Summary of S.R. 309.
• The other side of the story, from Georgians for Quality Economic Development.
• Recent story in the Jacksonville, Florida Times-Union, the only current item I could find on this issue in mainstream media.
• http://oconeedemocrat.blogspot.com/2006/10/oaky-woods-has-perdue-in-sticky-wicket.html
• Sierra Club Georgia Action Network. The campaign is closed, but this informative page is still available to read.
• http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/shared-blogs/ajc/politicalinsider/entries/2007/03/27/people_are_running_like_rabbit.html, March 27, 2007, the story of the "midnight legislation" that got S.R. 309, the private cities bill, passed.
• This opinion piece by the Georgia Heritage Council includes the full text of the Macon Telegraph article about the illegal dove hunt that led to the increase in the price the state had to pay to lease Oaky Woods. While there is much to dislike on the Georgia Heritage Council Webs site, all other sources of the story have been withdrawn from the Web, as far as I can tell.
• http://spofga.org/flag/2006/oct/sonny_perdue.php. Another possibly controversial Web site with good information on Oaky Woods and other shady deals associated with Governor Perdue.
• http://www.warnell.uga.edu/h/research/wildlife/wildlife/blackBears/

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