Suwanee Mediation With Developers Set for November

Attorneys for the City of Suwanee and developers Settles Bridge Farm LLC will go behind closed doors next month to try to find a compromise on a dispute that has resulted a $1.8 million judgment against the city.

City Attorney Gregory Jay said the mediation will be handled by former Gwinnett judge Richard Weingarden on Nov. 15. by Gwinnett Superior Court Judge Warren Davis after he declined to rule after a hearing.

The financial judgment against the city came in August, when a that the city's regulatory action in 2008 adversely affected a potential land sale by the developers. The extra hearing with Davis was held because of a special questionnaire that the trial jury used.

The mediator will try to bring the parties together on a figure. Elected officials from Suwanee also will be involved in the mediation, though the session itself will be closed to the public.

Winegarden was a Gwinnett judge in various courts for 25 years before leaving the bench in 2008. The mediator has to be agreed on by both parties in the lawsuit.

The developers' lawsuit originated in 2008. The city imposed a moratorium and then a special-use permit after learning that Notre Dame Academy in Duluth wanted to build a school on a 36-acre plot in a residential area near Moore Road. The developers had a contract to sell the land, which was zoned residential, for about $8 million to the school.

But Notre Dame Academy officials never applied for the special-use permit, saying in court that they felt their efforts would be futile. They canceled the sales contract in 2010 and settled their own lawsuit with the city.

Settles Bridge Farm LLC is led by former Gwinnett homebuilders Brad Williams and David Bowling.