Columbus Mott’s Green project may be in jeopardy, putting $800,000 at risk

In 2016, Columbus Council approved plans for a $1 million project that would rehabilitate green space near the old Mott House historic site.

The Mott’s Green property, located on the north side of the 14th Street pedestrian bridge, was to be spruced up in partnership with the Georgia Department of Transportation, which committed to providing $800,000 of the funds as long as the city contributed the remaining $200,000.

“This project will relocate and rehabilitate current (masonry) monuments, add a covered 60-foot-long bridge design to be built out in the river that commemorates both Horace King and ‘The Last Battle’ of the Civil War and add new paving design to align the passthrough under the bridge with the Riverwalk,” according to plans presented to Council at the time.

The concept first was proposed in 2009 by the CSU Servant Leadership class and under the administration of former Mayor Jim Wetherington, according to information provided by the city.

Mott’s Green exists on a plot of land not far from the old Mott House, which burned down unexpectedly in 2014 amid a TSYS renovation project. It was the last riverfront mansion on the Chattahoochee between Columbus and the Gulf of Mexico.

But now that the City Planning Department is ready to move forward, the Mott’s Green project could be in jeopardy due to the need for additional GDOT archeological and environmental studies, as well as concerns raised by at least one Columbus councilor.

A recent discussion began with presentations by City Planning Director Rick Jones, during which he reminded Columbus councilors of their approval of the project two years ago. He said there’s a synergy in the 14th Street area, with $72 million worth of investment, which began with $1 million to construct the RiverWalk from 13th to 14th Street.

Other investments he mentioned were the improvements to the 14th Street Pedestrian Bridge, $5 million; the 14th Street Pedestrian Bridge Plaza, $2 million; Fall Line Trace, $11 million, and the The Rapids apartments currently being developed by W.C. Bradley Co., $52 million.

City Manager Isaiah Hugley recalled that the city also spent $50 million in Community Development Block Grant funds to acquire 50 acres and relocate businesses in the area to make way for the TSYS campus now located in the vicinity.

Jones said refurbishing Mott’s Green is the last piece of the puzzle to make the area a great attraction. He said the project would return to Columbus Council for a vote at the next regular meeting scheduled for March 27.

However, GDOT recently ruled that archeological and environmental studies done by the city in previous years are no longer current because they are over a year old, he said. And the agency is now requiring that the city spend $107,000 of the $200,000 to conduct the studies before proceeding with the project.

And then there’s the issue of project itself.

At Tuesday’s Council meeting, Councilor Glenn Davis said it was his first time seeing the actual drawings and hearing about plans for the replica of the Horace King bridge that would be built as an observation deck overlooking the river. He suggested Council hold a public hearing before moving forward with the plans.

“My main concern is this is taxpayers dollars,” he said. “... So I can’t approve this without going to the public and getting public input.”

Mayor Teresa Tomlinson said the project already had been approved on two occasions, and all that’s needed now are amendments for the archeological and environmental studies.

“I disagree with you, mayor,” Davis said. “... How did we approve something we’ve never even seen?”

“Well, you’ve got the resolutions here and we’ve been briefed on this before,” Tomlinson said.

Davis said Tomlinson’s administration is always putting it back on councilors that they made the decision.

“No, sir, you say that over and over again,” the mayor interrupted. “... Somehow, there’s the constant suggestion that you’re being duped or things are being hidden from you. We go back and we pull the tapes, and then when we do everybody gets mad that we insulted them because we’ve proven, in fact, that we’ve shown over and over again.

“So, if you want to pull the tapes again and show the prior presentations, we’re happy to do that.”

Following the meeting, the mayor sent out an email to councilors with attachments of resolutions approved by Council on Aug. 9 and Dec. 6, 2016, for the project. The first authorized the City Manager to move forward with road, safety and transportation improvements for the area to support that and other projects. The second authorized the contractual agreement with GDOT and included details about plans for the replica of the Horace King pedestrian bridge.

Davis voted yes for both resolutions.

Horace King, a former slave, was considered the most respected bridge builder in west Georgia, Alabama, and northeast Mississippi from the 1830s until the 1880s, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

“He constructed massive town lattice truss bridges over nearly every major river from the Oconee in Georgia to the Tombigbee in Mississippi and at nearly every crossing of the Chattahoochee River from Carroll County to Fort Gaines,” it reads.

A native of South Carolina, King moved with his master John Godwin to Girard, Ala., which eventually merged with Phenix City. He built the first public bridge connecting Georgia and Alabama. That bridge was built where the Dillingham Street Bridge is now located.

King also built the original 14th Street bridge, which some claim to be the site of the last battle of the Civil War.

Local historian Virginia Causey said she hasn’t been involved in the Mott’s Green rehabilitation project, and she doesn’t know all the details. She said it’s a great idea to commemorate Horace King, but she has some concerns about the location.

“That seems like an odd place to put an overlook since we already have the pedestrian bridge going all the way across the river,” she said. “If it’s like one of Horace King’s bridges and its all covered and the sides are closed in, then it sounds like it would block the view up river from the pedestrian bridge and down river from TSYS and points north.”

Causey said Davis has suggested in conversations with her the possibility of constructing the replica down river near the Coca-Cola Space Science Center or the Dillingham Street Bridge, which is the site where King built the first bridge in the area.

“That was a much more important bridge in terms of commerce and the city’s growth,” she said.

Causey said it’s her understanding that the Mott’s Green project was suppose to commemorate the Battle of Columbus in the Civil War.

“... I think we have commemorated that battle to death,” she said. “And I’m not sure that that’s what we want all of our visitors all over the world to come and see when they come to the Riverwalk to go rafting.

“I mean, we have a whole museum dedicated to Civil War history if people are interested in that, and there are monuments and markers all over the river and down there near Mott’s Green about that battle,” she said. “So that, to me, is something that we’ve done enough on.”

This story was originally published March 18, 2018 at 8:00 PM with the headline "Columbus Mott’s Green project may be in jeopardy, putting $800,000 at risk."