Woman's battle with city of Atlanta to keep her Peoplestown home continues
Tanya Washington Hicks, right, is surrounded by other homeowners being threatened with eminent domain to take their Peoplestown homes. (FOX 5)
ATLANTA - Tanya Washington Hicks said she has been fighting for about a decade to keep her Peoplestown home.
Those who pass by her home that sits on the corner of Greenfield Street SE and Atlanta Avenue SE is a big porch overlooking two magnolia trees surrounded by a wrought-iron fence in the front and a pecan tree in the back.
"I have a lovely 101-year-old bungalow with a basement on a quarter-acre, 4-sided brick, hardwood floors throughout, three bedrooms, two baths," Hicks described. "It’s just, it’s home."
The Georgia State University law professor has been locked in a legal battle with the city of Atlanta wanting to keep her home standing and her living in it.
"We’ve been fighting the city for almost six years in court and a total of 10 years to stay in our homes," she said.
The city has been trying to use eminent domain to purchase and demolish the homes in Hicks' block saying it is the only way to fix ongoing flooding issues in the area.
"There’s flooding in the area that’s been caused by over development, neglect, highways, stadiums, taking up permeable space around what used to be Turner Field. And so, the consequence of that is flooding," Hicks said, adding that this is not justification to take her home.
There used to be 27 homes in the block bordered by Ormond Street SE and Atlanta Avenue SE to the north and south, and Greenfield Street SE and Connally Street SE to the east and west. Today, there are about four homes still standing. Despite the city’s insistence it needs the land to build park around a retention area as a way to mitigate flooding, the homeowners holding out said the city could have solved the problem without ever taking all their homes.
Hicks, who has taught law for more than 20 years, said the city has also not met the burden of the need to own the property. She also said the city did not do an engineering study until most of the homes had been taken. She called it a case study in government entities exercising eminent domain.
In addition, Hick said the offer the city gave her wouldn’t even allow her to stay in the same neighborhood.
"They’ve offered me $1,037,000, that’s not acceptable. That’s not what I asked for. What I asked for was to remain in a home that never should have been taken," she said.
She said she has already used more than $600,000 of her own money to fight the city and homes in the immediate area are now going for close to $1.5 million. She said she would be forced to move from the neighborhood.
"It’s not about money. It’s never been about money," she said.
Hicks said that despite recent historic rain, her property and in particular, her basement has never flooded. She also added that she doubts anyone in Buckhead would be asked to move using eminent domain to fix flooding there.
She said Mayor Andre Dickenson has said he opposes the taking of her land. She said he has acted in good faith so far and she hopes he does right by his campaign promises.
A hearing on the matter was scheduled Monday morning, but was continued over. There is no word on the next court date.
The city has previously said it will not comment on this pending legal issue.