Federal decide claims race might have killed Perkins Area undertaking

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Editor’s Note: The online video in this tale is from an April 2020 report on the lawsuit.

A federal decide writes that the city of Warner Robins may perhaps have killed a downtown very low-money housing job centered on race.

13WMAZ has been covering this situation due to the fact last April, when the Woda Cooper growth business sued the metropolis.

They assert that city leaders, like Mayor Randy Toms, invited them to make housing downtown, steered them to Perkins Subject, and supported the system for extra than a yr. That altered two years ago following general public meetings on the project.

Woda Cooper say Toms and other metropolis officials stalled on granting remaining permits for the approach. They argue that some men and women in Warner Robins opposed very low-earnings housing downtown, and that opposition was primarily based on race.

In a selection past 7 days, Decide Marc Treadwell wrote that the builders may be proper.

“The sequence of activities major to that about-experience strongly indicates that the metropolis succumbed to political stress arising from racial animus,” he reported.

Treadwell last 7 days threw out most of the Woda Cooper lawsuit, but saved a person rely alive. That is the just one that argues Toms and other metropolis officials violated state and federal housing guidelines by rejecting the Perkins Area project based on race.

No trial has been set on the lawsuit. Toms declined comment Monday.

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Supporters, detractors both of those vocal at Warner Robins Perkins Field cost-effective housing challenge listening to