For those wishing to directly contact them, Mr. Venturi and Lawyer Sams can be reached at: tinoventuri@aol.com, and gsams@samslarkinhuff.com
==========================================Dear Mr. Venturi:
We met initially in the Fall of 2004 when a community meeting was to be held to protest the rezoning of your 2.9 acre property. I phoned and left a message at one of your restaurants and you phoned back whereupon I advised you of the meeting and invited you to attend.
At this meeting you spoke about the proposed rezoning and repeatedly reassured the area residents that no consumer unfriendly businesses would be put onto that property if it were rezoned.
Subsequently, I and other residents attended a City Council meeting in October 2004 and at this meeting you and your attorney Mr Sams presented a letter to the City listing those types of businesses that would NOT be allowed on the property if the City would rezone the property from residential to business HGB.
You may recall that at item 's' on this letter was
'Pawn Shops', additional types of businesses were brought up during the meeting and in addition to those in the letter these were also incorporated based on the minutes of the meeting.
I have read the recent
'Constitutional Challenge' which you and Sams filed with the City to have the property zoning changed to allow this Pawn Shop to remain.
The 2 1/3rd page submission cites legal boiler plate of 'Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the 5th and 14th Amendments' and even touches on the Georgia Constitution of 1983. Nice high sounding and flowery phrases without any specifics. The effort was on par with what a newly graduated paralegal might turn out, ie: it was pathetic and not worthy of an attorney who, up until this submission, had been considered locally as a respected Zoning lawyer.
I recall the above mentioned meetings and how interested you and Mr. Sams were to get the zoning changed. To now come before the City Council, 8 years after the fact, and claim that you and Mr. Sams were taken advantage of and had your U.S. and Georgia Constitutional rights trampled on it ludicrious.
You and Sams couldn't have agreed quicker if you were on a game show and trying for the big price behind Door #2. I, and other area residents, look forward to testifying before the City Council or any other governmental body that the matter might go before.
In closing I will refer you to my blog post today on my site:
kennesawpawnproblems.blogspot.com/=============================================
Monday, April 9, 2012It's Just My Opinion: It is well known and recorded in the City Minutes of the October 2004 Council meeting that Mr. Venturi, as owner of the 2.9 acre parcel to be rezoned, was well aware and signed off on the restrictions prohibiting Pawn Shops on that land.
8 years pass and the City admits it has made an error in issuing a business license to the Pawn Shop, said shop using the misleading terms Jewelry and Loan rather than Pawn Shop to obtain their license.
Initial information was that mall owner Venturi was equally misled by the shop owners and he did not know of the Pawn issue until signs appeared in the shop windows.
That was the initial impression. Now that Mr. Venturi has gone on record by asking the City to in some manner change the regulation or make an exception so that the Pawn Shop can remain, you must ask yourself if someone who had been misled, or even lied to, by the shop owners would be of such forgiving disposition that despite the area residents outrage at the shop, and the underhanded method of it getting approved, would you expect the mall owner to then go to bat for the shop owners?
I don't think so. You might then have to consider the possibility that Mr. Venturi knew all along that a Pawn Shop was intended for those 2 units of his 16 unit mall. You might even consider that since it was built in 2006 that the mall had not attracted a lot of new businesses to rent those units and he may well be having a hard time staying solvent with an under performing mall.
Could it be that Mr. Venturi was well aware of the intended usage and decided that renting 2 of his empty units it would be worth it if the City thought that the license was for a Jewelry store rather than a Pawn Shop and did issue them a business license?
I guess only Mr. Venturi can answer that question. But his coming to the assistance of the Pawn Shop owners by asking the City to allow them to remain tells me that it is quite likely that he put money over integrity.
Shame on you Celestino Venturi.
