Land Use Changes
In The "Millions"

"Millions of changes" have been made to Athens-Clarke County's proposed development ordinance with no official record of who requested them or why, according to ACC Attorney Ernie DePascale.
Citizens keeping an eye on the ordinance have been frustrated by the number of deletions, additions and alterations in the new law made without public input or notification.
For example, four waterways - McNutt Creek, Cedar Creek, Trail Creek and Sandy Creek - were originally designated in the ordinance as "primary protected streams," and were to have 100-foot development buffers within Athens-Clarke County. The protected streams list vanished from the development ordinance in April, however, giving Athens' sewer discharge a wider buffer than its drinking water intake. Only after an enormous amount of public pressure did the Commission vote to restore 100-foot buffers.

"You been talking to the environmentalists...? Is that what this is about?"

As part of an effort to trace the source of such changes, Flagpole filed an open records request with DePascale's office on November 15, asking for copies of all governmental memos relating to the development ordinance from November 1, 1999 through that day. DePascale phoned Flagpole and said that while he would be glad to comply, the memos would be of little use.
DePascale also said memos between Mayor Doc Eldridge, the ACC Commissioners and him are protected by attorney-client privilege and would not be released.
"You been talking to the environmentalists - the people who think we've watered it down or something?" DePascale asked. "Is that what this is about? I hate to break it to you, but you're not going to find anything like that."
DePascale elaborated: "I mean, what you're going to find is, there are five drafts of the ordinance - or maybe more than that now, since we've added to the fifth draft - there's like six. Now, you know, you can go through those six and decide what we watered down, and then try to find out who did it. And of course, it was done by various people - the consultant, the lawyer in Atlanta, our office, Commission meetings - we had all those work sessions where Commissioners instructed us to do this or do that. And then a lot of it was rewritten by Holly Hilton in my office and Bruce [Lonnee] over at Planning, sitting across the table from each other, either in Planning or here, and trying to get the most recent intent of the Commission in the language."
But not even the Commissioners always know when a change is made. Commissioner Hugh Logan recently had a provision removed requiring bicycle racks on new commercial construction. At a November 14 Mayor and Commission work session, Logan claimed his action was on behalf of the Catholic school. (See City Pages, November 22, on-line at flagpole.com.)
The other Commissioners "didn't know it was taken out, perhaps," DePascale said.
"He [Logan] said it many times, and he said it to several Commissioners, and he said it to us, and he said it to Planning. Finally we decided [to] just take it out. There were things that were taken out, but your best approach to that is to go through the drafts, not to - there's not going to be any, you know, memos."
When Flagpole suggested there may be a more efficient way to track changes in an inch-thick document than to compare it line by line to an earlier version, DePascale responded: "And you don't want to do any more work than they do, is what you're telling me?"
It is unclear if "they" referred to Commissioners or citizens.
"You probably are going to need to do investigative reporting, and talk to people, rather than ask for memos," DePascale said.
"You should ask those people that told you there's a story in this, because they evidently know something we don't. I've heard them over and over talk about this. They didn't come to all the meetings, when the Commissioners met, and went through portions of the draft. You know, lines have been changed sometimes in each draft. We've had the problem many times when they told us to take things out; we understood they were out, and when the next draft came out they were still in. In fact, Bruce said recently that he personally took something out, and damn if it didn't show up in the newest draft. We don't know how that happened, how that is happening. His computer keeps crashing that holds the draft."
The Commission is scheduled to vote on the ordinance - which will guide development in Athens-Clarke over the next 20 years - at its December 5 business session, to be held at City Hall at 7 p.m. Public comment will be accepted prior to the vote.

"Greenbelt" Affects
Low Income Homes?

During the recent election season, anti-sprawl measures in Colorado were opposed by the state·s Habitat for Humanity affiliates. Habitat said that the proposed measures threatened their mission because the laws, if enacted, could raise housing costs.
Colorado isn·t alone in addressing this increasingly frequent dilemma of land use; Athens Clarke-County is faced with similar concerns.
Much of the debate on the comprehensive land use plan revolves around the minimum lot size to be allowed in rural areas of Athens, which are seeing more houses spring up to accommodate the growing population. According to 1990-98 US Census data, Athens-Clarke's population, with students, is expected to increase from the 1998 estimate of 90,630 to 106,174 by 2010.
"If you have increased population, the people have to go somewhere," says David Newman of UGA·s School of Forest Resources. "The question is, where do they go?"
Dr. Douglas Bachtel of UGA·s Housing and Demographic Research Center recently completed a study addressing housing availability in Athens. In his report, Bachtel concluded that few low income families "can afford the monthly payment on the ’$86,640 average mortgage,·" while "the average sale price of a home in Athens-Clarke County in 1998 was $109,441."
Laurie Fowler, of UGA·s Institute of Ecology and School of Law, says that in places like Athens, land isn·t scarce enough to make increasing housing costs a concern. Fowler feels that these issues are more pertinent to places like Portland, Oregon, where there isn·t a lot of available land.
But Luther Durham, an Athens area real estate agent, disagrees. He maintains that if a developer is limited in how many houses he can build on a specific piece of property, he·ll just raise the price of each home to cover his costs.
"What it·s going to do in a lot of cases," Durham says, "is push affordable housing out of reach."
Durham thinks there are better options for a land use plan than those currently being entertained. He admits, though, that he has not had time to get involved in the process.
In fact, there are quite a few people in Athens who are unfamiliar with the land use plan, especially in low-income communities.
Stella Sailors, director of Catholic Social Services, Inc., works almost exclusively with the Athens Hispanic community, the majority of which is blue collar and speaks no English. Sailors says the Hispanics she works with have no knowledge of the land use plan.
The local Habitat for Humanity affiliate hasn·t yet considered the land use plan or the possible consequences it could have on Habitat's mission. Maurice Green, Board President of the Athens chapter, says, "if the land use plan results in property values increasing, that would not be good for Habitat or the Habitat families." Green says that it is becoming more difficult to acquire land in Athens.
However, Tom Rogers, the fundraising chairman for Habitat, isn·t worried about possible effects from the land use plan. According to Rogers, Habitat builds homes where substandard homes used to be and on abandoned land given to them by the city – places he believes won·t be affected.
Some say that, even if the proposed land use measures do affect property values and housing affordability, those issues can be dealt with specifically. District 1 Commissioner Harry Sims suggests that the tax assessor would make appropriate adjustments to account for any rise in property values. At presstime, ACC Chief Appraiser George Hanson was unavailable for comment on what adjustments could be made.
One possible solution is transferable development rights (TDRs). TDRs allow rural landowners to sell development rights that can be used to build at higher densities in already residential areas. Beth Gavrilles, of the Athens Grow Green Coalition (AGGC), which advocates limits on rural development, says that part of the goal of TDRs is to compensate the neighborhoods which accept the increased density.
The places with increased density, Gavrilles adds, can be designated mixed-income so that new developments don·t force people out of neighborhoods.
For TDRs to be successful, though, the owner of a residential development has to agree to accept them. Luther Durham isn·t so quick to adopt increased density as a cure-all, because it will most likely occur in already dense low-income minority neighborhoods which have had little to no involvement in the planning process. Gavrilles says the AGGC has reached out to minority communities, but has not been able to establish a dialogue as of yet. That·s not surprising to Durham; he says those without much income don·t have time to participate in planning meetings.
It may well be that most of the Athens community isn·t familiar with the current debate over the land use plan. Durham says one person he talked to thought the "Stay Green" signs were about keeping lawns green. (Brian Glazer)