After dozens of community meetings and input from hundreds of residents, Athens-Clarke County planners are ready to turn those comments into a plan that will guide the city’s growth for the next 10–20 years.
ACC is updating its future growth map for the first time since the turn of the century. The first step is creating a “growth concept map” that will show, in broad strokes, where growth should occur in the coming decades. That map will be unveiled early next year and will become the basis for a more detailed parcel-by-parcel map.
In preparation, planners have spent the past month meeting with residents at various locations across the county. In addition, they’ve led walks in areas like Prince Avenue, Baxter Street and Nellie B, as well as bus tours of the Atlanta Highway and Lexington Road corridors. (At the latter, a concerned citizen called police about a city bus “trespassing” in their neighborhood.)
“Change is going to happen,” ACC Manager Blaine Williams told a crowd of more than 100 at the ACC Library Oct. 16. “You can be the architect of the change, or you can let change run you over like a freight train.”
That town hall meeting, attended by mostly Five Points residents, was atypical in that it was called by commissioners Mike Hamby, Allison Wright and John Culpepper, and was not scheduled by the planning department. Many of those who attended were there to vent about issues that are related to the growth concept map only tangentially, if at all. Some wanted to talk about short-term rentals, a hot topic that commissioners are dealing with separately. Others demanded to know if Athens is a “sanctuary city.” One claimed Athens is “the most dangerous city in the SEC.” (Five SEC cities are on a CBS News list of the 65 cities in the U.S. with the highest murder rates, and Athens is not one of them.)
“I think it was folks who feel like they don’t have a lot of time to ask questions, and they took advantage of that,” senior planner Bruce Lonnee said.
But county officials tried to keep the focus on growth. Athens’ population has risen by 1% a year like clockwork since World War II, and the city is expected to add 30,000 people by 2050. The growth is driven by UGA’s ever-increasing student body, which now tops 40,000 and is on its way to 50,000, as well as new jobs—3,000 created in the past five years, according to ACC assistant manager Niki Jones.
“Population growth is coming, whether we plan for it or not, so that puts us in a posture where we have to be thoughtful about what we want,” Jones said.
An official input session at Timothy Road Elementary on Oct. 25 was also atypical, because only three people attended. (One the previous day at Creature Comforts Brewery drew more than 40.) Participants talked about their ideal community, using Lego blocks, pipe cleaners and popsicle sticks to illustrate their ideas.
Lonnee, who is spearheading the growth concept map update, told Flagpole that a few themes emerged from various input sessions: Residents are interested in active living and want more biking and walking connections, housing is a big concern, and there are debates over whether Athens should become more or less dense as it grows and how much ACC should regulate building designs. People also generally want context-specific solutions, not a one-size-fits all plan, Lonnee said.
The decision in the late 1990s was that Athens should grow up rather than out, Planning Director Brad Griffin said at the Oct. 16 session. “Sprawl was the dirty buzzword that people wanted to talk about and did, and that sort of drove the bones of the comp plan,” he said. The current comprehensive plan and future growth map all but prohibits development in the rural outskirts of the county while funneling density downtown.
About a third of the county is currently zoned agricultural, a third is single-family, 10% is industrial (mostly around Chase Street and in East Athens), 6% is commercial and 5% is multifamily. Despite making up just a small portion of the county, the multifamily areas are booming, with more than 18,000 apartment bedrooms submitted, approved, under construction or built since 2018, compared to just 1,800 single-family homes. “Everybody assumes it’s only happening downtown,” Lonnee said. “It’s not. It’s happening everywhere.” Some areas, though, remain underdeveloped relative to their zoning and infrastructure, so there is still room for growth. But the commodification of housing, with investors outbidding families and driving up costs, is something the new growth map will have to tackle, as is the mix of housing types in the community, he said.
Once planners develop the growth concept map, it will go out to the public for another round of input early next year. The commission is expected to vote on it sometime next summer.
Election for Court Clerk Next Week
It’s an off year for politics in Athens-Clarke County, where most elections are on an even-year schedule, but polls will be open Nov. 7 for a special election to choose a new clerk of state and superior courts.
Both Andrew Griffeth and Elisa Zarate are running on their experience. Griffeth has worked in the clerk’s office for 12 years, while Zarate has spent 10 years in various courthouse positions, including most recently administrator for all six of Athens’ courts. What separates them is their endorsements: Zarate has been endorsed for the nonpartisan position by the ACC Democratic Party, Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz, Winterville Mayor Dodd Ferrelle, former clerk of court Beverly Logan and retired magistrate court judge Patricia Barron. When Logan retired earlier this year, Zarate was named as her interim replacement. Her website is electelisazarateforclerk.com, while Griffeth’s is griffethforclerk.com.
Early voting sites at the Board of Elections office, ACC Library and Winterville train depot are open from 8 a.m.–5 p.m. through Friday, Nov. 3. Two Winterville city council seats are also up for grabs; Ferrelle is running for re-election unopposed.
Visitor Spending Up in Athens
Visitors spent $435 million in Athens last year, up 29% from 2021, in a sign that the local tourism and convention business has fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.
That spending supported 4,414 jobs and created $31.5 million in tax revenue for the local and state governments, according to a study by Tourism Economics for the Georgia Department of Economic Development. Local officials shared those figures during Visit Athens GA’s annual meeting Oct. 26.
“Travel is back and only continuing to grow in Athens as we surpass pre-pandemic levels,” Katie Williams, executive director of Visit Athens GA, said in a news release. “We’re seeing a strong positive trajectory across all categories, from lodging to restaurants and retail, all thanks to our dedicated partners and businesses who make Athens a great place to visit.”
The group, formerly known as the Athens Convention and Visitors Bureau, honored Athentic Brewing Co. co-founder Paul Skinner as its partner of the year and the Historic Athens Welcome Center’s Caitlin Short as its Hospitality HERO (a frontline worker in the industry), gave the Classic Host Award to University System of Georgia conference and events operations manager Beverly Arnold for bringing a new event to Athens, and named UGA hospitality and food management professor and coordinator Joseph Salazar as the Louise Griffith Hospitality Leadership Award winner.
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