WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Editor's Note: The video in this story is from March when the Warner Robins city council tabled the Perkins Field housing project.
Developers of a proposed housing development at Warner Robins' Perkins Field say race and politics led Mayor Randy Toms and other city leaders to go back on their word and kill the project.
They filed a federal lawsuit last week claiming that city officials breached their contract and violated federal fair-housing laws.
The project was backed by a partnership of four companies, including Woda Cooper Development.
Their lawsuit claims that city officials recruited them to build an affordable-housing project in the city's downtown.
Eventually, the city directed them to Perkins Field, a former baseball field near city hall.
In 2018, the project says, city officials approved their concept plan for the project and supported their application for low-income tax credits to help fund the project.
They said many of their potential tenants would be service members at Robins Air Force Base, city employees and others working at the schools, hospital and retail stores near downtown.
With the city's go-ahead, Woda Cooper and their partners say they've spent more than $1.1 million on planning the project.
But at an April 2019 meeting, the lawsuit says, city officials began talking about public opposition to the project and concerns about "the type" of people who'd live there.
Toms and council members told them people were concerned that "public housing" might bring a "criminal element" to downtown.
At that point, the lawsuit said, Toms and other city officials began dragging their feet on final details before turning over the Perkins Field lease to developers.
Then, Toms said he had ordered city employees to stop working on the lease.
"The mayor and the city relied on deception and delay to obstruct the progress of the plaintiffs on the Perkins Field project," the lawsuit says.
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At least part of the opposition to the project, developers claim, is based on "racial animus."
They also say that the projects became an issue during the 2019 city elections, with some candidates opposing "government housing" leading to "rising crime rates."
The lawsuit also argues that Toms and other city officials tried to "bait and switch" developers by pushing them toward a site on Green Street, north of downtown, in a predominantly black section of town.
They say that area was not suitable for their project.
"The city and development authority are willing to cooperate with affordable multi-family housing, built using low-income housing tax credits, if that housing is located in a segregated area, near existing public housing, and far away from downtown Warner Robins," the lawsuit says.
Woda Cooper and their partners are asking the federal court to order the city to pay damages and also pay their legal fees for "bad faith."
The lawsuit doesn't cite a dollar figure, but in February, the developers sent Toms a letter saying they'll file a more than $3.5 million lawsuit if the project doesn't go forward.