MOVIES - Jan. 27, 1988

The City of Atlanta is facing a federal suit because Mayor Andrew Young has refused to allow the demolition of the house where Margaret Mitchell lived while writing “Gone With the Wind” in the 1930s. Young’s refusal to sign a demolition permit constitutes “unconstitutional taking of property,” says land developer Trammell Crow Co. in a suit asking for $136,000 in damages and $1,000 a day until the permit is signed. The company, which owns the house, wants to build a landscaped park on the site and says the dilapidated house renders an entire block “useless for any economic use.” But on Monday, Young endorsed the efforts of residents who have raised $850,000 to save and renovate the building that Mitchell herself called the “Dump.”