Mediation Fails in Suwanee-Settles Bridge Farm Case

Attorneys for the City of Suwanee and developers Settles Bridge Farm LLC failed Tuesday to reach a compromise on a $1.8 million legal award against the city. And in effect, the matter will now go back to a Gwinnett Superior Court judge.

Suwanee City Attorney Gregory Jay said via email that the parties were not able to find common ground, despite working with a mediator as required by Judge Warren Davis. Richard Winegarden, a former Gwinnett judge, was the mediator that the parties had selected.

Now, attorneys will submit briefs to Davis for him to submit a final order in the case; he had earlier declined to make a ruling after a hearing in September, ordering the mediation instead.

The when a Superior Court jury found that a city special-use permit negatively altered a 2008 land sale by the developers.

The land in question was a 36-acre tract at Moore Road and Settles Bridge Road. Developers had a deal to sell the land for about $8 million to Notre Dame Academy of Duluth, which wanted to build a large campus there. The land was zoned residential.

However, Suwanee officials felt that residents would object to a large school and resultant traffic in that area. So Suwanee imposed a moratorium on new construction, and then enacted a special-use permit process that the school would be required to go through.

Notre Dame Academy never applied for the permit, and eventually cancelled the sales contract. It settled a separate lawsuit with the city over the same proposed sale.

Suwanee is under no obligation to pay any portion of the award pending the outcome of the case.