Primary Content
LISTEN: A group of landowners is suing the city of Bloomingdale, claiming their zoning requests were denied while other developers got theirs approved after making large payments to a city gymnasium fund. GPB’s Benjamin Payne reports.
Three property owners in Southeast Georgia’s Chatham County have filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Bloomingdale and several city officials, alleging they were denied commercial zoning approvals that were granted to other developers who made substantial monetary “donations” to the city.
The complaint, filed June 16 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, accuses the Savannah suburb of operating what amounts to a pay-to-play system for rezoning applications, violating the plaintiffs’ constitutional right to equal protection under the law.
Plaintiffs Ston Yates, Nhan Van Hoang, and Terrence Thao Truong claim Bloomingdale approved similar industrial warehouse developments for other applicants only after those developers pledged hundreds of thousands of dollars for recreational facilities, while their own applications were repeatedly denied despite offering to make comparable contributions…