Dozens of Walker County, Georgia, residents marched down Main Street to the courthouse Thursday evening to call for the resignation of Commission Chairman Shannon Whitfield, who they believe illegally rezoned property without their input.
They believe that while serving as sole commissioner, Whitfield approved the rezoning of a 19-acre parcel across from Ridgeland High School in Rossville from agricultural and commercial to residential without properly holding the second of two required public meetings related to the request.
Some residents, like Kisha Parker of the nearby Mission Glen subdivision in Rossville, believe Whitfield never wanted feedback from residents about the property and pushed it through for “his own reasons.”
“The rezone was not done legally. It did not fall through the cracks as a lot of people have been told. You’re very meticulous about your meetings, so there’s no way that it fell through the cracks just this one time,” Parker told Whitfield after asking him to resign during public comment at Thursday’s commission meeting. “It’s ridiculous what’s happened and how we’ve just been pushed aside. The community, not revenue, should be the priority.”
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