Fulton to spend $6 million on South Fulton amphitheater

Fulton County leaders apparently haven’t learned their lessons from the Sandy Springs mutiny.

Last week, county commissioners voted 4-2 to spend more than $6 million to build an amphitheater in South Fulton, despite projections of sharply falling revenue over the next budget year.

The charge was led by South Fulton Commissioner Bill Edwards, who cited the large turnouts for free concerts by second-tier oldies acts last year at the county-owned Wolf Creek Park as evidence that a concert venue at the site could be self-supporting.

Edwards also argued that the county’s investment in the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park — a 12,000-seat venue opening next month near Alpharetta with a three-night stand by the Eagles — should be balanced by a similar project in the south end of the county. However, while that facility was built on land the county purchased for $1 million, the property sat vacant for several years until the Woodruff Arts Center put up the money to develop the venue.

The amphitheater at Wolf Creek, by contrast, will be built entirely on the taxpayer’s dime — at a cost that North Fulton Commissioner Tom Lowe predicted would be far more than the $6 million approved last week because that figure is based on three-year old estimates. Lowe, a retired engineer, pointed out that construction costs have risen considerably since then.

Lowe and fellow North Fulton Commissioner Lynn Riley voted against the measure. Commissioner Robb Pitts was out of the room when the controversial vote was taken.

For two decades, Sandy Springs residents had complained that the county used tax revenue from growing North Fulton to build roads and senior centers in sparsely populated South Fulton. Eventually, the community gained enough political clout to become a city. If Fulton commissioners are hoping to provide ammunition to the burgeoning Milton County movement, they couldn’t have picked a better vehicle.

(Photo courtesy of Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre)