The Athens-Clarke County Commission will vote next week on incentives for developers to build affordable housing.
The inclusionary zoning policy would offer developers the opportunity to build more units than the zoning code allows, less parking or, in the downtown area only, less ground-floor commercial space. In exchange, developers would have to agree to make 5–15% of the units affordable for those who earn 60–80% of the area median income, or about $30,000–$40,000 a year.
Developers of student housing downtown could also contribute payments to an affordable housing fund rather than include affordable units. Some commissioners oppose allowing those payments, but Commissioner Tim Denson defended them at the Mar. 15 agenda-setting meeting. “It may not be the most appropriate for us to have a building that’s 85% students and the other 15% families, maybe with children, stuff like that,” he said.
Downtown developments are so large and valuable that the payments would be enough to go ahead and build an affordable housing project without having to wait for the payments to pile up. In other parts of town, that might not be the case. “The fastest way to get affordable housing is to have developers who are already building affordable housing build it for us,” Denson said.
Commissioner Melissa Link raised concerns about additional density taxing infrastructure and threatening the character of neighborhoods that are zoned multi-family but are mostly single-family houses. Denson said the Planning Department did a study and found no infrastructure capacity issues. He also said the policy would be revisited.
“This is our starting point,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if in a year or two we revisit this and tweak it and make it a little better.”
Commissioner Jesse Houle suggested that, rather than be a carrot for affordable housing, ACC should require less parking for any development near transit. Mayor Kelly Girtz said he would assign the issue of parking ratios to a committee.
Also at the Apr. 5 meeting, commissioners are expected to approve a proposal for Athens Transit to take over UGA’s Health Sciences Campus bus route running from Normaltown down Prince and Milledge avenues, through the main campus and back. Athens Transit going fare-free complicated the way UGA reimburses ACC for allowing students, faculty and staff to ride Athens Transit for free, and it also complicated a federal grant that UGA and Athens Transit apply for jointly in order to combine their ridership numbers. The latest agreement calls for Athens Transit to keep the entire grant, and in exchange it is providing additional service on Sanford Drive and Riverbend Road, as well as taking over the Health Sciences Route. The additional service will cost Athens Transit $828,000, which will be reimbursed with UGA’s portion of the grant.
Odds and Ends
Yet another student housing development is coming to downtown. Austin, TX-based Lincoln Ventures recently broke ground on a seven-story, 600,000 square-foot development that will include 342 units with 750 bedrooms. It’s at 558 W. Broad St., the former site of the Courtyard by Marriott and a sports bar-turned-Phi Kappa Tau fraternity house. That’s not to be confused with another student housing development dubbed The William where the Days Inn used to be.
The University of Georgia-Augusta University Medical Partnership will establish a health center at Clarke Middle School, UGA announced last week. The health center will be a Westside complement to the Hilsman Middle School clinic staffed by the Athens Neighborhood Health Center and the medical partnership’s mobile clinic. It will open in a temporary location next fall and will be incorporated into the new building when Clarke Middle is rebuilt in 2024, serving students, their families and staff at Clarke Middle and Alps Road Elementary. It will provide preventive care, treatment of acute and chronic conditions, mental health counseling and referrals for other services. For a nine-month pilot period funded by a $94,000 UGA grant, services will be free of charge, then transition to a sliding scale.
Robert Finch briefly entered, then dropped out of the District 3 Athens-Clarke County Commission race, earlier this month, and now we know why: He has a new job. Formerly an administrator at a Coffee County hospital, Finch was named the new CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Athens. He is taking over for longtime CEO Mike Hackett, who is retiring.
Another candidate has also dropped out: Deston Bernard Anderson, owner of Jetz Cutz barber shop and Southern Culture Fish and Grits, had qualified to run for the District 5 seat on the Board of Education, but has withdrawn from the race, leaving Tim Denson as the lone candidate. Denson is one of the three ACC commissioners who can’t run for re-election because Republican legislators drew them out of their districts.ACC Manager Blaine Williams has named Hollis Terry IV the new director of the Public Utilities Department. Terry rose up through the ranks at PUD and has served as interim director since Frank Stephens retired last year. Meanwhile, Haylee Banerjee, director of Housing and Community Development Department, is leaving to take a job with the City of Atlanta.
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