The unanimous vote approving a gaming resort in DeKalb County is invalid, according to an opinion from the county attorney obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday.
The ruling could sink the proposed Panola Slope resort, an around-the-clock entertainment complex offering up to 425 gaming machines, by far the most in Georgia.
The DeKalb Commission voted 4-0 on Dec. 16 to approve Panola Slope’s zoning application, but that action was improper, wrote County Attorney O.V. Brantley. State law governing DeKalb requires that a district representative support the project, and neither of the two commission seats for southeast DeKalb were able to cast votes.
At-large Commissioner Stan Watson abstained from the vote because he’s on the payroll of the resort’s developer, APD Solutions, and southeast DeKalb’s district commission seat has been unfilled for more than a year and a half since then-Commissioner Lee May was appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal to replace suspended CEO Burrell Ellis.
Brantley recommended that the commission acknowledge the invalidity of the vote and restore APD Solutions’ zoning application to the commission’s agenda until it’s approved, denied or withdrawn.
