Chad Bailey left Tuesday’s Auburn City Council meeting proclaiming victory.
Parents like Bailey were expecting the council to table a recommendation from the Planning Commission to allow a bar to locate at 214 N. College St., next to Hardy’s Creative Childcare in downtown Auburn. Instead, they learned that bar owner Brandon Haynes had asked for his application to be pulled from consideration.
The city council was prepared to table the matter, until City Manager Charlie Duggan reported that Brandon Haynes wanted the issue dropped altogether.
Haynes of Columbus, Ga., did not attend the meeting, but in a phone conversation Tuesday night said he was “emotionally and physically burnt” after his plans to open a bar at that location caused public outcry. And by Tuesday, he had had enough and decided it would be better for all to actively pursue alternative locations in downtown Auburn.
“If there is no other option, maybe it will come back up again,” Haynes said of the 214 N. College locale, “but honestly, I think we can get something figured out elsewhere.”
Haynes said he is considering locations on Magnolia Avenue and College Street.
“We’d like to have him here in Auburn,” Bailey said of Haynes. “It was never about him or the bar, but the location. You don’t put a bar next to a daycare.”
Tonya Hollis said her 7-year-old daughter Starr uses the small alleyway between the two buildings everyday, and she feared the kind of items she would have encountered if the bar opened next door.
“It’s been something we thought of everyday since (the planning commission meeting),” she said. “Now I’m relieved for us, the kids and Ms. Hardy.”
Once Haynes finds another location, Duggan said the process will begin again with the planning commission before coming to the city council.
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