The Richmond Hill City Council voted 3-2 Tuesday to table rezoning 188 acres proposed to be Colonial Marsh subdivision behind Sterling Creek subdivision.

Council members Russ Carpenter and Jimmy Hires voted to table the request, while Marilyn Hodges and Van Hunter voted against. Mayor Harold Fowler's vote broke the tie.

City Attorney Ray Smith recommended tabling the matter because of last minute information that he characterized as a threat.

Smith said Thompson Kurrie with the Coleman Talley Law Firm of Atlanta contacted him Tuesday at 1:55 p.m. on behalf of Greenland, the applicant who’s under contract to buy the property, in regards to the conditions of the property set forth by a previous council in 2007.

Kurrie stated in a fax that the condition not to use Sterling Creek Drive, the only public road accessing the property, except in the case of an emergency, was breaking the law.

The council will take up the matter at next month’s meeting on Oct. 4.

Read more from the council meeting in the Sept. 24 edition of the News.